


We Didn’t Start The Fire

by ClothesBeam



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blackmail, Emotional Manipulation, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Minor Character Death, Multi, Murder, References to Suicide, but tagging anyway, the MaGoro is very late game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 68,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26679889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClothesBeam/pseuds/ClothesBeam
Summary: Akira never thought moving to Tokyo for his probation would lead to him trying to break up a supernatural murder gang, but he never could leave well enough alone.(i.e. Akechi gets to most of the Thieves first, through blackmail or coercion, and Akira and Morgana have to find a way to turn the tide)
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Niijima Makoto, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 80
Kudos: 206





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I feel weird ticking no archive warnings apply, but I don't think this is going to get much worse than the canon material.
> 
> The plot of this is based entirely on OG P5 because this was mostly written by the time I finished Royal.

Akira grumbled to himself as the heavens opened up and it started pouring down again. The sky had been perfectly clear about half an hour ago, so he hadn’t even thought to grab an umbrella before leaving his new home that morning. At this rate he’d be introducing himself to his new classmates while soaked from head to toe.

He glanced over when a girl wearing the same blazer as him stopped to take shelter under the same overhang. She was staring down at her phone with a harried expression. When she looked up at him she frowned, and Akira quickly looked away. He hadn’t meant to stare, but there weren’t many tourists or other foreigners in his hometown. And it was impossible to miss how pretty she was.

Akira noticed she was looking in his direction again, but before he could risk another glance, another person in the same uniform passed him. The guy with bleach blond hair seemed to be about as fond of the uniform code as the girl. Akira couldn’t help but notice he was walking a little off kilter, as if trying to avoid putting too much weight on one of his legs.

“About time!” the girl hissed. Akira looked away, hoping the rain would let up soon. “What took you?”

“The train schedule was all messed up this morning. I had to run to get to the next one on time, and it didn’t end well,” he snapped defensively.

“You injured yourself again? Ryuji! He’s going to be so pissed!”

“It ain’t my fault!” he protested loudly. “It was that Kamoshida asshole who did this to me!”

“Yeah well, he’s not the problem anymore,” she replied, far quieter.

Akira noticed the downpour was starting to let up. It was probably a good idea to get away from these two before they accused him of trying to listen into their conversation. But the moment he stepped out from under the awning, their attention snapped to him.

The blond squinted at his lapel. “You know this guy, Ann? I ain’t never seen him around.”

Akira shifted uncomfortably. But there was no point in hiding it. They’d figure him out soon enough. “I transferred today.”

“Transfer?” the girl, Ann it seemed, asked as she tilted her head. Her eyes scrutinised him from head to toe. “Wait, _you_ were arrested for assault?”

Akira frowned and looked away. It seemed his reputation preceded him after all. But what was the point in denying it when the courts had already decided he was a convict?

Akira shoved his hands in his pockets and continued walking down the street while it was still relatively dry. He’d have time to find his class before the bell went if he hurried.

“Hey,” the guy called out suddenly.

Akira glanced back over his shoulder in time to catch Ann looking at the back of her friend’s head in horror. Just how far had these rumours spread? And who had gone to the effort of starting them in the first place?

“Take the back alley here. It’s covered over.” He bit his bottom lip. “And it’s Sakamoto.”

Akira glanced into said alleyway, but quickly looked back at Sakamoto when he approached. He slouched into the mouth of it, not bothering to look back. Akira glanced at the girl, but she only gestured for him to go on ahead. He sighed and hurried to catch up to Sakamoto.

“Kurusu Akira,” he said as he followed the other boy around the corner.

Sakamoto glanced back at him with a neutral expression before looking past him and rolling his eyes. “She’s seriously not going to come this way because of you? After everything we’ve…” He trailed off, and Akira couldn’t help but wonder what he’d been about to say.

But he was distracted from those thoughts by an odd noise coming from a pile of boxes against one side of the alleyway. He wandered over with a small frown. It sounded like a cat meowing, and if it really was some kind of animal, he didn’t think he could just leave it there.

“What’re you doing?” Sakamoto asked as Akira lifted the flap on one of the boxes. A black cat with white markings and piercing blue eyes meowed at him.

Akira stared down at it, and was surprised when it stared right back. He’d thought eye contact was hostile when it came to cats. He hesitantly reached a hand forward and it head-butted his fingers. That was a good sign, right?

“Dude, seriously. You can’t take it inside, the teachers’ll have a fit.”

Akira pulled his bag forward and unzipped it, standing his textbooks back up and pushing his lunch and water to either end. He put the bag down in the box, and to his surprise the cat immediately jumped inside and made itself at home.

“Ok, but you have to be quiet in class or we’ll be in trouble,” Akira said softly. The cat meowed in response as though it was talking back. He hoped it was some kind of agreement.

Akira did the zip back up partway before standing and carefully putting his bag back over his shoulder. Sakamoto was staring at him incredulously, wide brown eyes darting from his bag to his face.

“You gonna turn around and tell me you’re Snow White next?” he joked weakly.

Akira felt his face flush and he pushed his glasses up his nose. He wasn’t going to bother wiping them off until they were inside proper. “Maybe keeping a pet will give me probation brownie points,” he replied flatly.

Sakamoto narrowed his eyes. “Bullshit. There’s no way you assaulted anyone.”

“You want to tell the courts that?” Akira replied quietly before continuing on his way down the alley. He’d been expecting the cat to start freaking out by now, but it was surprisingly still.

Akira could see Ann was waiting to cross the road in front of them. It seemed their shortcut had taken so long that she had pulled ahead of them again. Sakamoto passed him with a devious grin on his face as he hobbled forward quickly, quiet enough for the traffic and rain to drown out his footsteps.

When he was close enough he reached out and pulled on one of Ann’s pigtails. She screeched and whipped around with her fists raised. “Ryuji!” she exclaimed the moment she identified the culprit.

“Damn, I actually managed to sneak up on you?” he asked incredulously. “Should’ve gone for your tits instead!”

Ann smacked him around the ear. “If you did, I would have broken your leg again myself!”

“Oh come on, I was just kidding,” Sakamoto replied, now sounding more nervous. He brought his arms up a little, as if getting ready to defend himself.

Ann rolled her eyes and crossed the now clear road. Akira easily caught up to Sakamoto again as he hobbled across the road as well.

“Hey, what class are you in?” he asked suddenly.

“Uh, 2-D I think.”

“Yo, Ann! Show this guy to your class!”

Ann glanced back at them with an unenthusiastic expression and kept walking.

“It’s ok,” Akira said quietly. “I told the teacher I’d meet her first so she could show me where to go, anyway.”

“Oh, ok,” Sakamoto replied as they made their way through the gate. Akira slowed down a little as they climbed the stairs, but he doubted Sakamoto would be receptive to any offers to help. “Well anyway, I guess I’ll see you around, Akira?”

“Ryuji,” he replied with a nod before heading off to where he remembered the teachers’ offices were.

He patted the side of his bag as he went, able to feel the warm lump that was the cat he’d picked up. He hoped it wouldn’t pee all over his lunch. Maybe he should have thought this whole thing through a little more.

Kawakami was quick to lead him to homeroom, since he was only just on time. Once he’d quietly introduced himself to the class, he finally looked around properly. He soon realised the only spare seat was behind Ann. She gave him a nervous smile when he passed her before studiously turning her attention to the front of the room.

Akira carefully put his bag down. When he pulled out his books the cat leaped into his lap. But it disappeared under the desk before anyone could notice it was there. At least, he hoped no one had seen.

It didn’t take long for them to get into their first class. Akira put his head down and tried to focus on what the teacher was saying. But apparently people didn’t have a problem with spreading rumours about him even when he was close enough to hear.

It was only his second day of dealing with the people in this school and already he was sick of being treated like bomb that could go off at any minute. He didn’t know how an actual criminal would deal with all this. But all he had to do was endure for another year, right?

It wasn’t like his false criminal record had put the rest of his life in the toilet or anything.

* * *

It had to be a miracle. The cat hadn’t peed in his bag. And apparently it was also smart enough to know what a toilet was for. Maybe it wasn’t stray after all? Still weird, either way.

Just as Akira stood up to flush the toilet, he heard the stall next to him slam shut. “Ok, I’m alone now. What is it?”

Was that Sakamoto’s voice? He sounded on edge, kind of scared. Akira hesitated since it seemed Ryuji hadn’t registered there was someone in the next stall over. It was none of his business, but he already knew Ryuji couldn’t necessarily be intimidated all that easily.

“I-I know that,” Ryuji stuttered out quickly. “I’m grateful, really. And so is everyone else in the school.” He paused for a moment. “Of course I want to help you, too. I just… my leg…”

The stall walls shuddered a little, and Akira guessed Ryuji had smacked his hand against one. “I’m not a lia-whatever! Liability! I can do this.” Akira heard him sigh with the weight of his problems. “Fine, I’ll meet you all after school.”

Akira waited until he heard the stall door open again before flushing the toilet and moving over to the sinks. Ryuji glanced up to look at him in the mirror in surprise.

“Hey,” he said hesitantly.

Akira shuffled his feet. “Is everything ok?” he eventually asked even though he doubted Ryuji would admit it wasn’t.

“Fine,” he replied unconvincingly. “How much of that did you hear?”

Surely it was obvious he’d heard everything. “Are you being threatened?” Maybe ‘manipulated’ or ‘blackmailed’ would be more accurate descriptors.

“No!” Ryuji answered too quickly. He worried his bottom lip. “Look, you’re already on probation aren’t you? Trust me, you want to keep your nose out of this.”

Ryuji quickly finished washing his hands even though Akira was sure he hadn’t actually used the toilet. He hurried out of the bathroom before Akira could ask any more questions.

He felt the cat wriggle around in his bag. He already knew he wouldn’t be able to walk away from this, either.


	2. Chapter 2

Akira frowned and stabbed at his phone screen with his finger. That weird app was back again. He really hoped it wasn’t malware. He didn’t have any of his phone data backed up, and getting his contacts back would be a pain now that he was in Tokyo.

Giving up for now, he got up from his desk and carefully put his bag over his shoulder. Luckily the cat had jumped back into it obediently enough. Now he was just concerned about how much hair was going to get all over his things. But it was probably a bit late for that.

Akira walked out into the hallway and made his way over to the stairs. He did want to check out what was in the library before going home. But first he had to at least make an attempt to find out what was wrong with Ryuji, and possibly Ann. Fortunately for him, Ryuji was resting by the stairwell just outside his classroom.

He didn’t notice Akira immediately because he was staring down at his phone with a concerned expression. Seeing how much angst they seemed to carry over their devices, Akira couldn’t help but wonder what kind of messages they were receiving. Probably something like the phone call he’d overheard earlier.

When Ryuji looked up he startled dramatically. Akira couldn’t help but tilt his head with amusement.

“You were expecting Ann?”

Ryuji shrugged one shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting my new stalker,” he muttered.

Akira rubbed the back of his neck. “To be fair, you’re the one waiting outside my class.”

Ryuji shrugged and avoided meeting his eye. Akira guessed he wasn’t going to tolerate him prying into his personal business for much longer. Maybe a more indirect approach would be better, for now.

“Um, anyway, I guess you’re busy today. But do you want to hang out some time?” Just asking like that felt awkward, but it wasn’t like he’d managed to make any other friends yet. And he got the feeling Ryuji would get that, based on some of the other things he’d overheard today.

Ryuji looked surprised for a moment, but his expression quickly changed to a wry smile. “You haven’t been warned about me yet, huh?”

“Guess I was too busy listening to the girls on the other side of the classroom speculating about whether I was going to stab one of them or not.”

Ryuji winced sympathetically. “Yeah all right, fair enough.” He turned his attention back to his phone screen and they exchanged contact details.

“See you tomorrow, then,” Akira said with a small wave before turning to walk up the stairs.

The school was big enough that it probably had a newspaper club. Maybe he’d be able to find some old issues in the library while he was there.

When Akira slid the door open, he was surprised the whispers had followed him up here too. It seemed expecting the library to be more or less silent had been too much.

Trying to ignore them, Akira started pacing around the small room and checking out what they had on the shelves. It was already a few weeks into semester, so all the study guides and class textbooks had probably already been booked out. But he might get lucky yet.

Akira skimmed over the dense academic books on esoteric subjects. He wasn’t really sure why half of this stuff was in here when space was already so limited. But eventually he made his way around the reading tables and found his prize near the printer. A small rack held an archive of the newspaper club’s work, with the latest issue having been printed just last Friday.

He picked it up and saw something about heart attack prevention plastered across the front page. The subtitle mentioned a Kamoshida-sensei, which Akira’s mind immediately latched onto. He was sure he’d heard the name that morning in Ann and Ryuji’s conversation.

Akira devoured the article, knowing it was his first hint as to what was really going on around here. Mostly it spoke about the man’s contributions to the school and its well-known athletics teams. But there had to be more to him than just that. Hadn’t Ann said something about him not being a problem anymore? And he was sure Ryuji had implied it was his fault his leg was the way it was.

“Um, excuse me,” a quiet voice said from behind him, making him jump. Akira turned only to find a serious looking girl standing there with her hands clasped in front of her.

“Yes?” he asked hesitantly, automatically closing and folding up the paper in an attempt to hide what he was looking at.

He heard a whisper come from somewhere. “ _Is Niijima-sempai going to tell him off?”_

It seemed she had noticed it too. She closed her eyes, seemingly calling on her patience. When they opened, she gave him a small smile.

“I hope I’m not disturbing your afternoon. Are you the second year transfer student, Kurusu Akira?” Akira nodded hesitantly. “My name is Niijima Makoto. I’m your student council president. Given we’re a few weeks into semester already, I’m not sure how much of a tour you’ve been given, but our office is next door if you ever need anything. Are you interested in the newspaper club, by any chance?”

“Oh, not really…” Akira admitted. “I was just trying to get a better idea of what’s happening around the school.”

“Oh, well, I can show you the clubs registry if you’re looking to get involved in something like that.” She paused, seeming to notice something in his expression that said he very much was not. “Or are you talking about the tragedy that happened at the start of this semester?”

“The latter, I guess. I’ve just heard some conflicting accounts about him, is all.”

Niijima’s expression changed into some combination of sadness and hesitance. And maybe a few other things he couldn’t quite identify. “I think everyone is at a bit of a loss,” she said tactfully. “But this probably isn’t the best place to talk about all that.”

Akira nodded. “Um, are we allowed to borrow newspapers as well?”

Seemingly relieved that he’d asked a question she could answer easily, Niijima nodded. “Yes, you can have up to five items at a time,” she recited. “Though I believe there is an online archive of the digital versions of older issues too.”

Maybe it was his imagination, but she also seemed kind of glad it sounded like he was going to leave soon. He supposed all the whispering would be disruptive, and as a third year she was probably already prepping for entrance exams.

“If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to come see us in the student council room,” she reminded.

“Thank you, Sempai.”

She seemed surprised by how polite he was being, but she simply nodded. “Work hard, Kurusu-kun,” she replied vaguely before returning to her seat.

He intended to. Just probably not on what she’d meant.

* * *

Akira was wandering around Shibuya station, trying to remember which way he had to go to get to his platform, when the cat finally seemed to have enough of being confined in his bag. It pushed through the opening he hadn’t zipped all the way up and climbed out onto his shoulder before leaping to the ground.

“Hey, get back here!” Akira said as it disappeared between a few people’s legs. He did his best to sidle through the crowd and keep it in his sights. He could have sworn it stopped to wait for him a few times. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He cornered the cat against one of the station walls and knelt down, trying to grab it. That was when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Worrying that it was Sojiro asking him why he was coming home so late, Akira tried to keep one eye on the cat and one eye on his phone. But his focus was quickly drawn to the creepy looking app that had reappeared once again.

The cat practically yowled, and some noise came out of his phone speakers as if in response. But it was hard to make out the words among the background noise in the station.

Akira felt kind of faint for a moment and closed his eyes with a grimace. When he opened them again, his surroundings were suddenly dark and silent. He blinked a few times, but the scenery didn’t change back.

“Sheesh, about time,” an unfamiliar voice said. Akira looked back down only to find something that looked very much like a cartoon cat at his feet.

He startled and fell back onto his bottom, feeling his glasses jolt out of place. He straightened them up again, bringing the cat thing back into sharper focus. “Wh-what?” he settled on asking. That about covered the hundred questions he had.

“I’ve been trying to tell you I need your help all day!” It exclaimed, bouncing around a little. “You have the potential I’ve been searching for. Show me your Persona!”

“What?” Akira repeated, only more confused than he had been before. This had to be some kind of dream, or a hallucination.

The cat(?) sighed impatiently and started poking him in his sides, apparently trying to encourage him to stand up. “Come on! It felt like you’d already awoken it when we very first met. Or, someone nearby had...” It shook its head. “No! It had to be you!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Akira said weakly as he got back to his feet. “And who or what are you?”

“My name is Morgana! I’m a human!”

Akira raised one eyebrow. Morgana shook his small fists at him.

“Come on, just like this!” he exclaimed, and suddenly he was surrounded by blue flames and some ghostly figure with a rapier was standing over them.

Akira felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. Something thrummed inside of him, almost like he was standing next to a speaker that was blaring a bass note.

“Uh huh, there it is. I knew I felt it!” Morgana hopped around even more than before. “Show me!”

“I-I don’t know what you’re…” Akira began, but he was cut off when a flash of light cracked through the air. Morgana screeched as he was knocked away by it. He hit the ground hard.

A pair of creatures floated out of the darkness. One appeared to be some kind of demon in a jar, and the other looked like some kind of fairy. Maybe they weren’t quite as menacing as the attack might have led him to expect, but every instinct he had was screaming that he was in danger.

He looked over his shoulder, but he could barely see a foot behind him let alone where they’d come in from. And even if he could flee, Morgana really didn’t look good. These things might even finish him off.

What had he said before? Persona?

_If you’re in there, now would be good._

Akira really hadn’t been expecting himself to answer.

_It’s about time._


	3. Chapter 3

Akira knew he should have gone to bed much earlier last night. But he’d still been jittery after everything that had happened. At least Sojiro had caved to letting him have a pet almost immediately, even if he wasn’t sure if he should keep it anymore.

It’d soon become pretty obvious that Akira was the only one who could hear Morgana. Or, the only one who could understand him. Was he actually going insane, like one of those people on the news?

“Dude, are you sure you’re ok?” Ryuji interrupted his racing thoughts, seeming to have caught his breath already.

Akira glanced up at him from where he’d sprawled out on the grass to rest after their run. Though Ryuji still insisted it’d only been a light jog.

Akira noted the dark circles around his eyes and the way one of his legs shook. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Ryuji pulled an expression he’d definitely deny was a pout. He adjusted the rolled up sleeves of his track uniform before replying. “Stop trying to trick me into telling you what’s going on. I’m too dumb not to fall for it, and I’ll be punished if the others find out.”

Of course that only concerned Akira all the more. Still, it was interesting to note he definitely had more than one accomplice.

“Why’re you so intent on this anyway?” Ryuji continued, quieter than before. “You just nosy or something?”

Akira rubbed his arm through the painfully red sports uniform jacket. “That’s probably part of it,” he admitted. “I didn’t think _I_ was going to get arrested as a result of sticking my nose into the last mess I got involved in, but I guess there’s a reason I had to do it. I can’t regret it.”

“Hmm?” Ryuji encouraged him to continue, moving to stand over him.

“Sorry, which one of us is the nosy one?” Akira teased.

“Oh come on, man,” Ryuji complained as he shifted to squat down next to him. He soon changed position when it seemed to bother his leg. “What, you want a dark secret for a dark secret? Let’s see… My old man used to beat the shit out of me and my mum.”

“I think I’m going to run out of dark secrets before you do,” Akira said lightly, hoping he wasn’t pushing his joking too far. He didn’t mean anything by it, it was just his default coping mechanism.

Ryuji shoved Akira so hard he fell onto his side. He looked annoyed, but not offended.

“Ok, ok,” Akira relented. “So it was night time and I was on my way home from my part time job. I heard a man and a woman yelling at each other, but the woman sounded really scared. When I turned the corner I saw some guy was pretty clearly trying to get her in his car so he could get in her pants. I couldn’t just keep walking.”

“Dude, what the fuck is with some people.”

Akira shrugged. “I dunno, what else have you got?”

“What? You ain’t even finished the first story yet!” Ryuji protested, threatening to shove him over again.

Akira had to straighten his glasses. He made a gesture like he was expecting some kind of payment.

Ryuji huffed. “One time I punched a teacher in the nose and he broke my leg in ‘self-defence’.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” Akira teased again. But he thought he could guess who the teacher had been. Still, that guy had died from a heart attack. Right?

“It might be,” Ryuji grumbled.

Akira smirked at him, trying to hide his rising nervousness. Ryuji hadn’t really judged him even when he thought he did have a legitimate criminal record. Could there be an unsavoury reason for that?

He continued talking before Ryuji had a chance to notice anything was off. “So, I’m not really a loud person, but I started yelling at this guy to leave her alone. I was hoping to get someone else’s attention so it wouldn’t turn into a fight. But a fat lot of good that did.

“The guy was drunk and basically tripped over his own feet. It seemed someone had heard what was going on because the cops showed up right after that. And then, well, I got sued for hurting him.”

“And now you’re on probation? Such fucking bullshit.”

“Right? I think you owe me another one.”

Ryuji scoffed. “You really are a monster,” he grumbled, but he looked away thoughtfully. Maybe he had actually run out of serious stuff. “Mmkay, last one, and you’ll be sorry you asked.” Ryuji leaned in conspiratorially. “I like boys as much as I like girls.”

Akira wasn’t sure how to read his expression. “Is _that_ supposed to be a threat?” he asked after a pause.

Ryuji sputtered. “What is that even supposed to mean?”

Akira brought his fist to his mouth, unable to stop himself from laughing this time. “I’m just joking, Ryuji. I’m not quite so egotistical enough to assume I’m your type.”

“Well, maybe you should be…” Ryuji paused, then his face flooded with colour. “Oh wow jeez, I’ve gotta go, uh…” He didn’t bother finishing his sentence before zipping to his feet, immediately moving in the direction of the practice building.

“Ryuji, wait!” Akira called, but he was already almost at the door. It seemed he could still move when he wanted to.

“See you tomorrow, man,” Ryuji called back, voice faint thanks to the distance, before entering the building.

At least that was a good sign they’d see each other again. Probably.

Akira finally sat up properly again and tried to brush some of the grass off his tracksuit, suddenly overly aware of how quiet it was. He supposed he should go find Morgana and head home, but he felt he should give Ryuji a chance to use the changing rooms in peace.

He really hadn’t been expecting their conversation to turn in that direction, let alone hear Ryuji say something so embarrassing. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the sudden admission. He knew he didn’t dislike looking at other guys, but as far as these things went, he’d been a pretty late bloomer.

Akira felt his phone go off and glanced down, only then realising how long he’d been spacing out. He hadn’t been expecting the message to be from Ryuji.

_Thanks for listening to my BS. Ignore me._

Akira tilted his head as he got up and slowly made his way toward the school buildings. Morgana was probably slinking around somewhere, waiting for him impatiently, since people would notice a black cat crossing an open area like the oval pretty easily.

_It’s ok. You’re friends with Ann when she’s clearly your type too, right?_

Ryuji was as quick on the response as always. _She’s hot, but she’s a crazy bitch._

Akira frowned. Obviously he didn’t know Ann well, but he hadn’t got that impression off her. _How so?_

This time the dots indicating he was typing appeared and disappeared several times before he got a response. _Thought I told you to stop that._

Akira hesitated. Ann wasn’t the one threatening him over the phone, right? She had referred to a ‘him’ before, so while it wasn’t impossible, Akira somehow doubted it.

_Sorry. See you tomorrow then._

_Thanks for being cool about this man. See ya._

When Akira was close enough to the edge of the courtyard, Morgana appeared out of nowhere with his claws drawn. Akira flinched as he climbed him to sit on his shoulder and head butt the side of his face.

“Let’s go back to Mementos!”

Akira sighed. A quick glance around told him that no one was nearby. It was late enough for most people to have headed home by now.

“I told you, I’m not going back there again.” If it weren’t for the talking cat, he would have brushed the whole experience off as an awful hallucination.

Morgana made an odd noise. “Don’t you want to know what happened to that Kamoshida guy?” he asked lightly. “I was there, you know. There’s a reason you found me outside the school.”

Akira awkwardly tried to look down at him, only getting a glimpse of blue eyes. It was hard to tell whether a cat was being sincere.

“Are you being serious?”

“Yes! I have no reason to lie.”

“You have every reason to lie,” Akira muttered. But all his other leads were drying up, or actively blocking him off. “Fine, but not today. I’m tired, and I need to catch up on the first few weeks of school before midterms.”

“Tomorrow!” Morgana insisted, claws digging in slightly when Akira shifted his shoulder.

He nodded reluctantly. This had better be worth it.

* * *

Ann started when the surface she’d been resting against moved suddenly. She gasped as the table on wheels rolled away slightly. She let it out as a sigh before berating herself for being silly.

Ann sat up in the chair and stretched as she glanced over at Shiho. Anxiety squeezed her gut. Shiho still hadn’t woken up, and if she never did, Ann knew she could only blame herself.

Akechi had appeared out of nowhere with a solution—extreme and unbelievable as it might have been—weeks ago, right before school had started up again. If she had have acted then instead of pussyfooting around, that bastard would never have had a chance to touch Shiho again. And Shiho would never have felt her options for escaping the situation had narrowed to something so drastic.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner,” Ann said quietly as she settled back into the chair. “But he can’t do anything to you or anyone else ever again now. So, it’s safe to come back, ok?”

Of course there was no response, but she hadn’t really expected there to be. Ann glanced down at her phone and noticed it was getting late. She’d get kicked out soon.

She opened the group message between herself, Akechi and Ryuji when she realised it had an update as well. Ann bit her bottom lip as she read.

_New target identified. Meet after school tomorrow._

Ann quickly sent back an agreement, knowing how pissed he got when they didn’t answer right away. But she also knew he wouldn’t want to hear any excuses unless he asked directly. He could probably guess where she was, anyway. He was meant to be some kind of student detective, after all.

If only he acted the same way on TV as he did with them…

Still, she could imagine how he was going to collect on the favour she and Ryuji now owed him. And she guessed he wouldn’t tolerate them refusing to pull the trigger themselves for much longer.

She wasn’t quite sure why he’d risked exposing himself by recruiting them. He was so much stronger in that other world than both of them put together, he could have easily floored Kamoshida in minutes if not seconds. But he’d clearly been training them up for something.

It sounded like she was going to find out more about what that was soon.

Ann stood up and looked around surreptitiously. She had taken up the deal with the devil too late, and now she had to deal with the consequences. But she had to believe that this would turn out better than whatever Kamoshida had been trying to get her to do.

When Ann was satisfied no one was standing in Shiho’s doorway, she ducked forward to leave a kiss against her hairline.

“Things will get better,” Ann said with more confidence than she felt, before turning away and dashing back through the maze that was the hospital.

She didn’t know what Akechi’s real motivation was. But now he’d given her a taste of this power, she wouldn’t let anyone else hold sway over her like that again.

All she had to do now was get out from under his thumb.


	4. Chapter 4

Akira supposed the fact Morgana hadn’t seen his power before should concern him a little, but he didn’t have time to consider that when he was busy fighting for his life. Something told him all of this would be less hair-raising if it wasn’t just him and Morgana facing down shadows, but he was slowly getting used to changing his Persona to match their opponents.

He suspected they would have keeled over a few floors back if he hadn’t.

Having a knife in his hand was also getting a little too comfortable. He couldn’t help but wonder what his classmates would have made of that. But all he knew was that he was glad his cognitive shoes fit perfectly, because they had been walking these tunnels for what had to have been hours now.

“You want to pack it in already?” Morgana teased from somewhere around knee height, but Akira could tell he wasn’t faring that much better. “You’ll never be strong enough at this rate.”

“I think this will have to be more of a marathon than a sprint,” Akira admitted. “If this place even actually has a bottom.”

“It has to…” Morgana insisted quietly.

A moment later his ears flickered as his gaze shifted to the intersection of tunnels ahead. Akira mentally prepared himself for battle, but snapped out of it when he heard seemingly human voices ahead.

Suddenly grateful for how dark and dreary Mementos was, Akira pressed himself into the nearest wall. His eyes widened when a group of people crossed the tunnels ahead of them. The details were slightly blurry without his glasses, but he could see enough to identify them as being masked and costumed like him.

“Aren’t those the kids you know from school? They smell—I mean _look_ —the same, anyway.” Morgana whispered. “Though, who’s that guy?”

“What are you talking about?” Akira murmured, though he was sure there were only so many people with bushy blonde pigtails in Tokyo. And even if he had no hope of seeing the second person’s face, every other feature from his hair to the way he moved matched Ryuji. “I thought you said you saw what happened to Kamoshida?”

“S-shh!” Morgana hushed him, looking somewhat nervous. But now probably wasn’t the time to interrogate him about that.

“You sure it’s on this level?” Ryuji—it had to be him—asked as he scuffed a foot against the old train tracks.

“No, Skull. That’s why we’re looking,” an unfamiliar voice said. His tone was smooth and dripping with sarcasm, and Akira could hear the quotation marks around the name he’d used.

“I told you not to talk to me like that!” Ryuji snapped even as he hunched over further, defensive.

“Or what?” the other boy demanded, words low and slow.

Ann shifted, clearly uncomfortable, but she didn’t say anything. Akira guessed he wouldn’t be any kinder to her if she interfered.

“You might be tough here, but back in the real world I’d cave your pretty boy face in no problem!”

The other guy gave a long suffering sigh. “Obviously I didn’t recruit you for your brains, but do try to follow along with this one.” He put one hand on his hip and ran the other through the back of his long hair. “What do you think I would do to you if you did try something like that?”

Ryuji leaned back a little. “You said I don’t have a shadow to kill because I have a Persona!” Akira frowned as he tried to follow the logic. But apparently it made sense to the other two.

“Of course, but does that apply to everyone in your life? Perhaps you should check if your mother has a shadow down here.”

Ryuji startled, then pulled out his phone. He hesitated. “I’m not saying her name in front of you.”

The boy gave him a slow clap. “It seems he can be taught. But do you really think I would come into this engagement unprepared?” He took out his own phone and looked down at it. “Sakamoto Misaki.”

Akira tensed when the device in his own pocket went off. But thankfully it had been too soft for the others to notice.

Ryuji made an odd noise, and Akira guessed that the name had brought up a positive hit. He’d probably be able to check it out on his phone later.

“What the hell? Why is she even?” Ryuji shoved his phone back… somewhere, and continued in a more normal tone. “Leave her out of this, you slimy asshole!”

“Of what possible benefit would that be to me?” he replied lightly as he put his phone away as well. “At any rate, I made your Kamoshida problem go away. Now it’s your turn to help me.”

“I never asked you to kill him!” Ryuji protested.

The other boy tilted his head. “You did help me get through his palace, though. That would probably make you a joint principal in a trial. An accomplice,” he clarified. “Either way, your foot is stuck in it now.”

Ryuji turned away from him and folded his arms tightly. Akira automatically pulled further away from the corner he was looking around, even though he knew they couldn’t see them.

“Um, A—” Ann began, but quickly cut herself off at his glare. “Crow, what do you want us for, anyway?”

Akira glanced sharply at Morgana when he made a scoffing sound. “That explains that ridiculous mask. And sheesh… there was no need to kill to solve their problem.”

He looked back at the others in time to see Crow tilt his head the other way. “Insurance,” he replied simply before turning to look down the tunnel they had just come from. “We’ll need to come back later.”

Morgana stiffened against Akira’s leg. “Hey, remember what I said about the reaper?” he whispered.

Akira glanced up, but the others were already running away. Ryuji’s fingers dug into his thigh for a moment before he disappeared around the corner. It seemed they’d already been pushed hard, and that they were about to be pushed even more. But there was nothing Akira could do about it right then and there.

He picked Morgana up and turned on his heel, sprinting for the platform they’d just jumped down from. When they made it to the escalator, he was surprised to find his chest wasn’t heaving as much as usual.

Morgana head butted him in much the same way he did in his cat form. “Come on, the faster we get out of here the better.”

“Did you really lie to me, Morgana?” Akira asked as he started walking. He wasn’t going to start running again unless they heard that horrifying sound.

Morgana made a noise of complaint, but he didn’t deny it. “I really was trapped in Kamoshida’s palace! But when they defeated him, I was able to turn back into my other form and slip out through the bars before the whole place came down on my head.”

They both remained silent as Akira slipped past a few more shadows. Morgana had said something about being able to transform into a vehicle, but he hadn’t been expecting them to get far enough for it to make any difference this time.

“But, you know what? I can help you get stronger so you can help your friend. And then you’ll be strong enough to help me get to the bottom of Mementos too!” Morgana exclaimed suddenly. He looked up at Akira with wide eyes.

He sighed and nodded. “All right, fine. Help me to help you.”

“Yes!”

“Now, tell me more about this palace business…”

* * *

Ryuji had come to his and Ann’s class for lunch, but Akira had no idea how to even start a conversation about what he’d seen yesterday. Especially not while Ann was still sitting at the desk in front of them. He didn’t want to risk giving himself away to what was potentially a murder gang, especially when he still had no clue who the third member was.

“What’s the matter, man? Something you wanna say?” Ryuji asked casually as he nudged Akira’s shin with his foot.

Akira grumbled and bent over to brush away any dirt or grass that might have been left on his slacks as a result. These had to last until laundry day.

When he sat up he started twirling his disposable chopsticks between his fingers absently. “You’re hurt again. Even more than yesterday. What happened?” he finally settled on asking.

“What’re you talking about?” Ryuji replied unconvincingly, turning his attention to the window.

Akira watched Ann turn around in her seat, seemingly in the middle of getting up to put her rubbish in the bin. When she noticed Akira was looking at her, she glanced away guiltily and quickly left.

“Ryuji, don’t play dumb.”

“I know, I know. I’m too good at really being dumb to pretend.” He grinned at Akira and lightly kicked him in the calf.

“God, stop playing footsie in the classroom you faggots,” someone said. Akira glanced up to see a group of boys in sports uniforms gathered around the seats at the front of the class. He wondered if they were the members of the volleyball team that no longer had a coach.

Ryuji’s feet thudded on the ground as he went to stand. His fists were clenched and his face was red. Akira didn’t have time to think too much.

He grabbed Ryuji’s shoulder before he’d even managed to get halfway to his feet and pulled him back into his chair. The shock of his butt suddenly slamming back into his seat seemed to get through the fog of anger and embarrassment. Akira gave him a pointed look before withdrawing his hand.

“All right, fine,” Ryuji said with a heavy sigh as he put his feet up on the edge of Akira’s desk and leaned back to balance on the back two legs of his chair. He turned his attention back to the guys, who seemed just as startled by the quick turn of events. “Don’t be salty just cos you’re not getting any.”

This time it was Akira’s turn to go red. He knew he was posturing, but just what was Ryuji trying to imply?

Someone over to their right started laughing softly. He quickly stopped when all of them turned to look at him.

“Can it, Mishima,” the same boy who had called out before muttered. A short while later the large group left, seemingly done with eating.

Only then did Akira sharply kick the legs of Ryuji’s chair out from under him. Of course he made sure Ryuji wouldn’t fall back onto the next row of desks, and that he would fall in the direction of his good side, but that was the only sympathy he was going to offer in that moment.

“What the hell, man!?”

Akira leaned forward over his desk and pushed his glasses up his nose. “At least have the decency to make it sound like you’re the one sucking dick next time.”

Ryuji gave a startled laugh. “I had to say something to shut them up. But sure dude, I’ll keep that in mind,” he teased. “Didn’t know you were that much of a prissy bitch,” he added, much more quietly.

Just as Ryuji went to grab the seat of the chair to haul himself back to his feet, Akira hooked his foot back around the leg of it and yanked it out of his reach.

“Akira!” Ryuji complained, not quite able to stop himself from laughing long enough to sound truly annoyed.

This time Akira cracked a smile. He couldn’t let this Crow do more damage than he had already.


	5. Chapter 5

Akira put his books back in his bag, making sure to leave room for Morgana. It seemed the cat didn’t want to let him out of his sight for too long, still insisting on going with him almost every time he left the house.

But Akira really was exhausted now. He still couldn’t believe the only school that would take him was a prep school that had classes six days a week.

He glanced over at the boy who he’d identified as Mishima last week. He was still here, apparently trying to get his homework done before heading home. He chewed on the end of his pencil as he glared down at the book he was working in.

The classroom was almost empty now. Akira would prefer to wait until everyone else was gone, but if he did he would risk Mishima heading home before he could engage him in a conversation.

Akira got to his feet and cut through the row of desks between them. Mishima didn’t notice his approach until Akira was standing over his desk. Mishima glanced up, then leaned back in his seat a little so he could meet his eye comfortably.

“Er …?” he asked eloquently. “You really are tall, huh?”

Akira obligingly leaned back, half-sitting against the backrest of the chair behind him. Maybe he wouldn’t need to intimidate Mishima into saying something.

“Sorry, I was just going to ask if you’re working on that maths homework. The second last problem is killing me.”

Mishima sighed and put his pencil down. “Why do you think I’ve been here for the last hour? I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter since I’m part of ‘go home club’ now, but…”

“What club were you a part of?”

Akira had seen the trophies and the team photos downstairs near the school’s entrance, and he’d seen Mishima’s name listed as part of the volleyball team. But it was probably better if he didn’t know how much preparation Akira had done for this conversation.

Mishima looked surprised, but then seemed to realise something. “Oh right, you didn’t transfer until after all that. Jeez, it feels like a lifetime ago already. I used to be on the volleyball team.”

“Used to? Was Kamoshida the only reason you were on the team?”

Mishima withdrew into himself a little, his face twisting into a grimace. “Something like that,” he muttered.

Akira felt he needed to be careful about what he said next. “Must have been tough when all of that happened all of a sudden.”

“This probably sounds awful, but it’s almost a relief,” Mishima admitted quietly. “After all the rumours, I bet Takamaki wasn’t exactly sad about it either.”

“Why do you say that?”

Mishima glanced up at him, only now seeming to remember just who he was talking to. “You don’t know? I guess I assumed you were friends with her because of Sakamoto.” He paused and looked away again. “I’d better not say any more.”

Akira tilted his head. “Is it really that private?”

Mishima appraised him with a little more caution in his eyes. “What’s your angle here, Kurusu?”

Akira stood up straight again, not failing to miss the way Mishima leaned away from him slightly. May as well use the rumours to his advantage. “I’m just… concerned about my fellow students.”

Mishima swallowed and gripped his pencil in his fist. Akira hoped he wasn’t planning on trying to jab him with it. “Well, so am I. Just tell me one thing. You and Sakamoto?”

Akira hesitated. Of course he’d heard the new rumour going around about him and Ryuji, but he wasn’t sure why Mishima was asking, so he didn’t know what the best answer would be. He put his hands in his pockets and tapped the toe of one foot against the ground.

“Maybe. We’ve only know each other for like two weeks.”

Mishima’s grip on his pencil relaxed. For whatever reason, he seemed to find his answer acceptable. Mishima glanced around the room, only to see the last few students were leaving. When they closed the door he stood up.

“Well, the main rumour about Takamaki was that she was dating Kamoshida. But I’m like ninety percent sure it was actually her and Suzui who had something going on. Thing is…” Mishima bit his lip before continuing. “The thing is, he was physically harsh on everyone. But when it came to some of the girls…”

Akira thought he was starting to get the picture. “Suzui was one of the girls?”

Mishima nodded. “At the end of the first week of semester, she tried to…” He looked away with a pained expression. “From the roof. That’s why no one’s allowed up there at the moment.”

Maybe Akira was starting to understand where their desperation had been coming from. But knowing Crow had seen that as an opportunity was just... “I see.”

Mishima collected himself after a few moments. “Why did you want to know, anyway?”

“Ryuji didn’t always have those injuries all the time, did he?”

Mishima’s mouth opened slightly as something seemed to click in his head. “No, other than the thing with his leg last year, he never… Before Kamoshida, he was the star of the track team, you know? Scholarship and all.”

He’d seen hints of that in his quest through the school halls as well, but it hadn’t been given precedence like the famed volleyball team. And he knew things had to be difficult money-wise in Ryuji’s household since it was only him and his mother.

“Then you know why.”

Mishima nodded slowly. “He’s in trouble again and you want to help him. Well, if there’s anything I can do, let me know.”

“Thanks, Mishima-kun.”

Mishima sighed. “It’s the least I can do after royally fucking up with Suzui. And you…” He trailed off, then quickly turned away to pack up his things. “Huh, it’s getting late!”

“Mishima.”

His guilty expression told most of the story. “The moment you were confirmed to be attending this school, Kamoshida told me to leak your record online. I guess he didn’t want you here either.” Mishima rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.”

Akira tilted his head. “After everything you just told me about that man, how could I be mad? Let’s just start over.”

“O-ok. But um, I do actually need to head home now.”

Akira nodded. “See you Monday.”

Mishima waved as he left the classroom. Akira rolled his shoulder before following at a slower pace. He wondered what else he could dig up just by speaking to the people in his peripheral.

* * *

A few days later, Akira managed to ambush Niijima just as she opened the door to the student council room. “Niijima-sempai,” he began, but she held up a finger and shifted the phone she had pressed to her ear slightly. She gestured toward the table in the room, and Akira took the invitation to sit down.

“No, Akechi- _kun_ ,” she said slowly as she closed the door. “I don’t keep tabs on my sister. You have more chance of contacting her than I do at this time of day. I’m still at school, like you should be if you’re serious about your exams.”

Whatever his reply was, it made Niijima scowl at a point over Akira’s shoulder. Something told him that was not a glare he ever wanted directed at him.

“Yes, well, we can’t all both be on TV and get perfect grades.” Her mouth tightened as she listened to his response. “If you’re done, I have responsibilities to attend to.” Not bothering to wait for a reply, she hung up and put her phone down on the table.

Only then did she seem to realise Akira was sweating in his seat. She cleared her throat and smoothed her skirt before taking the seat opposite him.

“My apologies, Kurusu-kun. That was just an irritating acquaintance of mine. What can I help you with?”

“Akechi?” he asked. Something sounded familiar about the name. Maybe he’d overheard it somewhere, given how much his classmates liked to gossip.

“Oh, you know of him? I suppose he has been on TV more often lately.”

Akira could tell she didn’t want to talk about him, so he changed the subject. “Anyway, Sempai. I actually wanted to ask you about Kamoshida-sensei.”

This only seemed to make her even unhappier. “Kurusu-kun, there really isn’t much to say. Why are you so concerned about a person you never met?”

“Because while he was alive, he seemed to have quite the impact on many of my classmates. Some of them positive, most of them not. And I’m aware of the fact that some of them are experiencing abuse even still. It would help me to help them if I knew more about their recent history.” He hoped that made sense even without the context of the metaverse.

Niijima was startled by his blunt explanation. “That’s ridiculous. Someone would have come forward a long time ago.” Her features shifted to concern. “But, what do you mean by ongoing abuse? Is it affecting any students in particular?”

“I guess they were either too ashamed to talk about it, or when they tried they got shot down. Why do you think Suzui-san…?” Maybe bluntly blurting that out was going a little too far.

“T-the reason she did that wasn’t shared widely,” Niijima replied quietly. “I… I suppose I did hear mutters about the possibility it was because of Kamoshida-sensei, but like I said, no one ever came forward with evidence as far as I know. And I guess the general atmosphere of the school has changed ever since he… But there’s not really a way to prove it now, is there?”

Akira settled back into his chair as he listened to her rambling explanation. Somehow he’d managed to push her off-kilter. It was probably time to press the advantage.

“I don’t know, but some people who used to be victims of his violence are currently undergoing something similar. Do you really not know anything else about Kamoshida?”

Niijima sighed softly and looked down at the desk. “You’ve only been here for two weeks and you already know more about it than I do,” she said quietly. “What am I doing?”

Of course he didn’t have an answer for her. He guessed he would just have to go off the information he already had. It sounded like Crow had been the one to actually commit the murder, but how had he managed to rope the other two in? Had they really been that focused on revenge?

Akira stood up, making Niijima start slightly. “I’m sorry for bringing up something so sensitive. I’ll go now.”

“Wait, if you really are concerned about your classmates being physically hurt, you should go to the police,” she replied hurriedly.

Akira paused with his hand on the door handle. “After what they did to me? I don’t think so,” he said softly. If his situation had been misunderstood, Ryuji and Ann’s almost certainly would be.

He left quickly before she could add anything else. His long strides took him around the corner to the main part of the hallway. Before he made it to the stairs, an increasingly familiar voice called out to him.

“Akira! Gimme a hand over here!”

As soon as he realised it was Ryuji, he veered off his path to go over and see what the problem was. He frowned when he saw Ryuji was dragging a white sack of something heavy over to the next flight of stairs.

“What on earth are you doing?”

A girl in an oversized pink turtleneck came around the corner behind Ryuji. She laughed softly. “Funny you should mention earth…” she said softly. She put her own half bag of soil down and wiped her brow.

“Come on, we’re helping um…” Ryuji paused and looked back at the girl. He either didn’t know her name or he’d forgotten it.

She looked caught out for some reason. “Just Haru is fine!”

“We’re helping Haru-sempai get this stuff to the roof.”

Akira resigned himself to the fact he was getting roped into this. He put his schoolbag down near the stairs and moved to take the other end of the soil bag Ryuji was still hanging onto. “I thought we weren’t allowed on the roof anymore.”

“I have special permission to continue looking after the planters,” Haru explained as she picked her load back up and followed them.

It was awkward moving something so big, but Ryuji was strong. And so was he, Akira realised. It seemed fighting in the cognitive world was having an effect on his real body too.

They made it to the top first and dumped the bag next to the other one that were already up here. “You hiding some biceps under there?” Ryuji asked with a snigger before pinching one of Akira’s arms.

Akira waved him off, feeling embarrassed for some reason. He backed off when Haru joined them, putting her bag down on top of the others. “We did it!” she said happily before turning to them and bowing shallowly. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s nothing!” Ryuji assured her with a grin. “You should get to your thing on time now right?”

“Yes, that’s right. So, sorry to cut and run…”

“See you around!”

Akira waved as she hurried back over to the stairs. Ryuji waited approximately five seconds before blurting, “She’s cute, huh?”

It was true, but Akira hadn’t been expecting Ryuji to say it. He also got the feeling Ryuji meant it a lot less platonically than Akira might have.

For some reason, that thought bothered him.

Akira hummed noncommittally as he made his way over to the door. They really would get in trouble if someone saw them up here without Haru.

“So, your true motivation comes out,” he teased.

“What? No way! I’m just an upstanding guy! Haven’t you noticed?”

Akira paused at the bottom of the stairs to pick up his bag, and poor Morgana. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled softly. “I have.”

Ryuji stuttered to a halt, clearly not having expected him to agree. A hint of a blush crossed his cheeks.

Feeling an odd sense of satisfaction, Akira waved. “I’ve got to go home and finish catching up on my classes. See you tomorrow.”

“S-see ya,” Ryuji replied, oddly quiet. He looked over his shoulder twice as he made his way to his classroom, probably to grab his bag.

When Morgana poked his head out to stare at him, Akira had no idea how to interpret his expression. But that probably had something to do with the fact he looked like a normal cat right now.

“Don’t give me that look,” Akira muttered anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

It was always difficult seeing Shiho stuck in her hospital bed, looking beyond tired. But Ann was grateful she could still see her at all. And unlike Ryuji, she didn’t need Akechi to bluntly point out that he could change that at any time. Whether or not she had a shadow in Mementos, she was being treated in a public hospital. It wouldn’t be that difficult for him to access her room.

He might carry a silly ray gun on him for metaverse reasons, but she had seen a real gun and its ammo in his case once. While she doubted he would do something so obvious, it still spoke volumes about how far he was willing to go to get what he wanted.

Ann slowed outside of Akechi’s school when she spotted Ryuji. He was talking to a girl who she only realised was also a student at Shujin when her large jumper moved just enough to reveal the pattern on her skirt.

She didn’t think the girl was here because Ryuji had asked her to come.

“Ryuji,” she called as she glanced down at her phone to check the time. It was unusual for Akechi to be late to anything.

“Oh, hey,” he greeted, sounding flat tired already. He glanced between the girl and Ann, only then seeming to realise they didn’t know each other. “This is Haru. Ann.”

Haru gave her a distrustful look, but nodded anyway. “Nice to meet you.”

“And you,” she replied, though it’d probably be better for Haru if they never had. “Have you seen Crow yet?”

Ryuji shook his head. “Nah, it’s weird. Thought he didn’t want us hanging around here.”

Ann sighed, then settled against the low wall on Haru’s other side. “Dare I ask how he got you involved in all this? I get it if you don’t believe me, but we’re not all like him.”

Haru’s fingers twisted together. “He showed me my father’s palace and said if he killed the version of him there, he would die in the real world too. Is that true?”

“Yeah, he’s threatening my mum in more or less the same way,” Ryuji replied before Ann could say anything. He folded his arms. “What d’you think happened to Kamoshida?”

Haru’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?” she whispered before leaning forward and covering her face with her hands.

Of course it was at that moment Akechi decided to show up. Ann looked up at him, surprised when she noticed he appeared to be flustered and slightly out of breath. He glanced down at his watch with a frown when he stopped in front of them.

He opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to change his mind. “Let’s just use one of the empty classrooms.”

Ryuji patted Haru’s shoulder once before pushing away from the wall. He looked Akechi up and down. “You ok, dude?”

Akechi’s mouth tightened, but otherwise his expression became more neutral. “I’ve just had conflicting appointments make me run late the entire day,” he replied vaguely. He turned away and started walking toward another one of the school buildings, clearly expecting them to follow.

Ryuji gave Ann a significant look before the three of them did so. They walked in silence until they reached a classroom that looked like it was used for music practice. When Akechi closed the door behind them, Ann realised the place was pretty well soundproofed.

She hoped that was for the sake of their meeting, and not something else…

Akechi slumped into one of the chairs at the edge of the room. By the time they had all pulled a couple more chairs into a circle, he was sitting with his usual perfect poise again. Ann glanced at Ryuji. It seemed she wasn’t the only one noticing his strange behaviour.

“We have two new targets we need to take down. They’re both going to be tougher than the last one.”

After Kamoshida they had gone after another man in Mementos. Akechi had ordered her to use her fire abilities to knock him down, then told her and Ryuji to leave. She didn’t know what he did to him after, but that night she had seen something about a certain company losing stock value because one of its more competent executives had died in a car crash.

But she still didn’t get what his motivation was. Akechi didn’t seem to be the kind of person who cared about money. At least, not beyond being able to make himself look presentable.

“You have three days to prepare yourselves, then we’ll be making the trip on Sunday afternoon.” Ryuji made a noise of complaint, but quickly looked away when Akechi narrowed his eyes at him. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Ryuji replied with a sigh. “But we do have midterms the week after.”

Ann snorted. “Not like you were going to study for them anyway.”

“Yeah right, A-” Ryuji glanced at Akechi then cut himself off. “ _He_ has been on my ass about studying more for weeks now. Goddamn nerd.”

“Bet that’s not the only reason,” Ann replied with a roll of her eyes. She guessed they didn’t have to worry about being ostracised when they already were for arguably worse things, but there was such a thing as subtlety.

“Ann, please, we actually have a lady present now.”

Ann was on her feet before she knew it, but of course Ryuji was just as quick. “What’s that supposed to mean!?”

Akechi stood up as well, looking more openly irritated than usual. There just had to be something else putting him under stress, and she doubted it was exams.

“Would the two of you shut it? The room isn’t that soundproof!” But now his voice was rising as well.

“Ann,” Haru said sweetly, as though there weren’t three people yelling at each other right in front of her. “I could believe it’s the other way around as well. Ryuji has him wrapped around his finger, it’s so cute.”

Ann found herself laughing, which was oddly relieving. Ryuji threw his hands up and turned away from them. “Ugh, you guys are the worst! I’m leaving.” But all he did was drag his chair a little further away before plopping down moodily.

Ann sat down as well. She glanced up at Akechi, who seemed to be startled but how quickly the tension had disappeared from the air. He exhaled and sat down primly once again.

“This time you will just provide support, but you will need to catch up to the others as soon as possible,” he said quietly. “I will acquire a suitable model gun for you before then.”

Haru’s hands twisted together once again. “You’re not going to make me kill anyone, are you?”

“Aren’t you doing just that by helping me?” He folded his hands in his lap and crossed one leg over the other. “Are you saying you’re unwilling? You know what will happen if you don’t do what I want.”

Haru drew her knees together as her head and shoulders drooped. “How can you expect someone to make a decision like that?” she murmured.

Akechi looked down his nose at her. “How do you even have a Persona if it’s this easy to push you around? Are you just that well-acquainted with being used by others?”

Haru gasped as though he’d struck her physically. She stood up, trembling hands clasped in front of her chest. She took a few deep breaths, then shook her head. There was the beginning of tears in her eyes, but they were steely too.

“I won’t forgive you for this.”

Haru seemed to take all the energy in the room with her when she left. Ann could see Ryuji was about to say something to Akechi, which probably wasn’t going to end well for him. She looped her arm through his and dragged him over to the door.

“See you on Sunday, Crow. Let us know what time,” Ann added before walking out the door. Once they had left the building, she looked over at Ryuji. He’d been oddly quiet. “Haru’s too rebellious. Akechi is going to grind her under his shoe,” she mumbled.

Ryuji shook his head. “We shoulda been more like her from the start. But you keep kissing his ass, so I get the brunt of it every time.”

Ann shrugged guiltily. “You don’t sound particularly angry about it.” They exited the school grounds and waited by the busy road.

“Your side boob appeases me,” he said, with an expression that indicated he was doing a poor job of not laughing.

“I didn’t know you knew any words that big,” Ann mocked as she dug her nails into his arm. “But don’t think I won’t push you into this traffic and laugh over your dead body,” she threatened without any heat.

“I always said you were a crazy bitch. But if you do that you’ll have nosy old Akira to deal with, won’t ya?”

“I hate you.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

“Sakura-san, there’s a suspicious boy outside your house yelling something,” the snooty regular said as he popped his head through the café door. “Something about an art contest? Though I’m not sure why someone so droll would care about something like that,” he scoffed.

Akira looked up from the dishes to see Sojiro was raising a brow in his direction. “Well, it can’t be my suspicious boy doing it. Come on, let’s go see what this is all about.”

Akira dried his hands off on his apron and silently followed Sojiro out the door. He flipped the sign to ‘Closed’ since there weren’t any customers in this late anyway.

“Thanks, we’ll take care of it,” Sojiro paused to say to the man, who nodded before continuing on his way to the train station. The shadows cast by the light inside emphasised the look of concern on Sojiro’s face for a moment before he took off down the dark street.

Akira had to put in an effort to keep pace with him. It didn’t take very long for the alleged yelling to enter their hearing range.

“Can you just explain the piece to me? I don’t understand it at all, and as a student of the arts, this is not something I can overlook!”

“What?” Sojiro muttered to himself as he rubbed his forehead. The two of them reached the corner and looked down the small alleyway to see a boy in a school uniform standing outside the gate in front of Sojiro’s place, staring down at his phone screen crankily.

Akira put his hands in his pockets and approached cautiously. It seemed he hadn’t noticed their presence yet. Or maybe he just didn’t care, since he seemed to have no sense of shame.

Akira was close enough to realise he was both taller and narrower than him when he suddenly spoke loudly once again. “What do you mean it’ll take too long to explain!?”

Hesitantly, he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. He jumped slightly, but his posture remained open. Akira glanced down at his phone screen, looking for some kind of context. “You know you can just text them back, right?”

“No, she has done something to my phone so only she can message me,” he corrected instantly.

Akira glanced back at Sojiro questioningly. He hadn’t realised there was anyone else living in his house, but maybe there was a reason he’d wanted to keep it that way.

Sojiro sighed and rubbed the back of his head before pulling his own phone out. “Futaba, you can have friends over. Just make sure they’re not so loud.”

Akira couldn’t make out the words, but he could hear the higher pitch of her voice and a general tone of protest. If he had to guess, she was young. Maybe a kid?

Sojiro’s expression shifted from amused to concerned the longer he listened to her explanation. “You’re stalking her?” he demanded angrily.

“It’s not like that!” he protested with conviction. “She submitted lines of code to a visual art show. I need to know why it won a special award!”

Sojiro squinted at him disbelievingly. The voice came through the phone again, then he held it out and tapped the screen. “All right, you’re on speaker.”

“I was just trolling the judges for fun! It’s not my fault one of them was enough of a nerd to recognise my genius. Look, I just simplified down something that’s usually done with a huge ugly coding loop into a few neat lines. Now go away!”

The boy brought his hand to his chin. “Ah, I see. Elegance in simplicity. Why couldn’t you have just said that from the beginning?”

“Get out of here!”

Sojiro sighed. “You’re one of those Kosei arts students, aren’t you?”

“Ah, you know my school?” the boy asked at something closer to a normal volume now that his curiosity had been satisfied.

“I hope no one else does, for its reputation’s sake,” Sojiro grumbled. “I think you should leave.”

“I’ll walk you to the station,” Akira said before the boy could do something else, like protest that notion.

Sojiro nodded at him gratefully before hanging up. “Lock up when you get back,” Sojiro muttered as he handed him a key. “We can talk more tomorrow.”

Akira nodded, trying not to look surprised by this sudden show of trust. He hadn’t really been unkind, but Sojiro had been stonewalling him for the last few weeks.

“Ah!” the boy suddenly exclaimed dramatically, making Sojiro scowl. “It’s already so late, I need to get home! Sensei…!”

He took off down the road, long legs carrying him along surprisingly quickly. Akira rushed after him. “Go right, it’s faster that way!”

The boy looked over his shoulder and waved in thanks, only just returning his attention back to where he was going in time to dodge around an oncoming old woman. “Careful!” she snapped, but he was already far and away.

Akira paused at the corner as he watched the boy run down the right road. There was no way he could miss the station entrance. He glanced over his shoulder to see Sojiro had already gone inside.

He sighed to himself and shook his head as he made his way back to the café. Was he ever going to meet anyone in Tokyo who was normal?

…Well, birds of a feather and all that.


	7. Chapter 7

Akira could tell Ryuji would much rather be anywhere but studying on a Saturday night, but he wasn’t going to give up on getting him to try. If he failed too badly he might have to repeat a year. Or worse, he might even give up on graduating senior high school altogether.

Akira’s future was non-existent at this point, but he wasn’t going to let Crow take that from Ryuji too.

“We’re not really getting anywhere, huh?” Akira commented quietly.

Ryuji glanced up at him before leaning back and sighing. “Guess I’m too busy worrying about other things. Not that this stuff normally comes naturally to me.”

Both of those statements were of interest. Had Ryuji stressed that he needed to leave before lunch tomorrow because they had a strike planned in the afternoon? That would probably be stressful enough to distract him from his studies even more than usual.

And if Ryuji didn’t find this kind of thing helpful even under normal circumstances, maybe there was another method they could try. One that didn’t just involve sitting around and going over their notes and practice questions.

Maybe he could get two birds with one stone.

“Is there a park or anything near here?” Akira asked since he hadn’t got around to exploring beyond the corridor of Tokyo between his front door and Shujin.

Ryuji looked much more enthused by the prospect of going outside. “Yeah, Inokashira’s close.”

“Great,” Akira replied as he stood up. Ryuji frowned when he picked up his notebook as well. “You didn’t think you were going to get out of this that easily, did you?”

Ryuji sighed in defeat and stood up, leading the way outside. Akira made sure to lock the place back up behind him. As promised, the park was a short and relatively quiet train trip away. The night air was still cool, but not as freezing as it had been back in April.

They’d barely started on a walking trail, but Ryuji already looked like he was in a better mood. Akira did his best to guide their conversation naturally from one class topic to the next, and soon realised that Ryuji did actually pick up quite a lot just from listening. At least, more than his average might suggest. It seemed putting it into written words under timed test conditions was the real problem. He thought he knew how he could help Ryuji organise his ideas, but he’d save that for when they got back to Leblanc.

They paused at a section of the water’s edge that was lit only by distant city lights. Getting to see views like this whenever he wanted had to be one of the best things about having his life abruptly relocated to the middle of an unfamiliar city. Ryuji seemed to be willing to wait for him, but Akira soon cut to the real reason he’d dragged them out to one of the few places that felt secluded around here.

“So, you’ve got a big day tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Ryuji replied. He folded his arms and gave Akira a sideways look. Akira tried to look innocent, but it didn’t seem to work. “Don’t hurt yourself, dude.”

Akira laughed softly. It seemed he’d have to try being more direct from now on. “You know I only keep annoying you about this because I want to help you, right?”

Ryuji sighed once again and rubbed the side of his neck. “There’s nothing you can do to help me. It’s better if you don’t get involved.”

Akira gave him a hard stare. He couldn’t just leave things here and hope they would turn out for the best. Revealing himself to Ryuji was a risk. He wasn’t the best at keeping things to himself. But the longer Akira sat on his laurels, the more people would get hurt, or worse.

“I don’t think you’re a murderer, Ryuji.”

The horror at being found out dawned on Ryuji slowly. He took a few steps away. Akira had seen how fast he could move, so he didn’t waste time thinking. He grabbed Ryuji’s forearm and held fast.

“Don’t run away from this. From me.”

“God, fuck, how did you find out? It was my fault, wasn’t it? He’s going to kill me.”

Akira hadn’t expected his reaction to be quite this panicked. He quickly shook his head. “No, actually, it was a complete coincidence that I saw the three of you in Mementos at all. I heard what he said about your mother…”

“But how? How did you get there if he didn’t show you the way?”

Akira relaxed his hold as he looked back toward the water for a moment. “The cat talks. His name is Morgana. Apparently he was locked up in Kamoshida’s palace?”

“That’s impossible,” Ryuji muttered. “But then again, how else would you know about that asshole’s mind? How does a damn cat learn to talk and use an app, anyway!?”

“Apparently he doesn’t need it if he’s only transporting himself,” Akira murmured. Ryuji was taking this part surprisingly well, but then, he had probably seen stranger things in the metaverse. “He said he used to be human, but I don’t know if it’s true. Honestly, that would make me giving him belly rubs really weird.”

Ryuji made a sound of amusement and brought a hand to his forehead. “What the fuck?” he murmured helplessly.

“Well, the point I’m trying to make is that we can help your mother. Then that Crow guy won’t hold sway over you anymore.”

“What’re you gonna do, sit around guarding her in the metaverse twenty-four seven?”

Akira shook his head. “You can do more with shadows than kill them. In Mementos you can convince them to return to themselves in the real world, triggering a change of heart.” He hadn’t seen it in action, but he thought he could trust Morgana on that one enough to try it out.

Ryuji put his hands in his pockets, and Akira finally let go of his arm. “Even if that’s possible, I don’t know why she’s down there. Only people with twisted up thoughts have shadows, right? She’s always been normal enough when I’m around. What if something big changes about her?”

Ryuji frowned and scraped the bottom of his shoe against the ground. Akira waited for him to reach the end of whatever thought was bothering him.

“If she’s alive but not her anymore, then it’s just the same as killing her, isn’t it?”

Akira was taken aback, but he couldn’t find a good argument against it. Maybe this was going to be more complicated than he’d anticipated.

“We could just visit her shadow and talk first, right? I don’t think she would attack if you were there.” Ryuji’s expression seemed to indicate he wasn’t too keen on the idea. “Or… we could try talking in the real world?”

“You gonna do your nosy thing again on my own mother?”

Akira took a few small steps closer, until there was hardly any distance between them at all. Ryuji didn’t move away, only returned his gaze. “If it means you can act like a normal human being again, sure.”

“Dude, if that’s your end goal I think you’re going to be pretty disappointed,” Ryuji joked, even though he still looked uncertain.

“I don’t.”

“D-don’t give me that look.”

Akira had to do something to break the tension. “So, how are you going to introduce me?” he teased, nudging Ryuji with his elbow as he turned away from him slightly.

The darkness made it impossible to see, but Akira was almost certain he’d made Ryuji blush again. “As some annoying asshole, probably.”

Akira put a hand over his heart and shook his head. “You wound me, Sakamoto.”

“Don’t you ‘Sakamoto’ me,” he grumbled, kicking his toe against Akira’s heel.

He held his hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. Let’s talk about this more next week. I’ve got another study technique I think you might like.”

“Like? Study?” Ryuji scoffed, but followed him back to the station without protesting further. It seemed he at least trusted him enough to give it a shot.

* * *

Ryuji had stared with suspicion when Akira followed him to the train station in the morning, but he’d simply explained he was being sent on an errand to Akihabara. And he was actually telling the truth. He’d received a mysterious message last night while trying to ignore Ryuji’s snoring from the couch. It had been from someone who wanted him to deliver something to Sojiro’s house.

He had a feeling he might know who it was.

Akira compared the SD card’s specs with his instructions five times before handing over more money for it than he was comfortable with. He had assurance that she would pay him back for it plus a delivery fee, but he was having trouble keeping enough money around for both train tickets and things to take to Mementos as it was.

He didn’t understand why she specifically needed a pink and white memory card when it was tiny and would spend all its time inside another device, but he supposed it was none of his business.

Akira checked the time on his phone, glad he had time to get back to Yongen-Jaya before he’d need to be in Shibuya again. He sent her a quick text before ringing the doorbell. A few moments later the front door opened a crack.

“The gate’s open. Gimme,” a quiet voice demanded.

Unsure what she was getting at, Akira passed through it and up to the front door, nervously sliding the narrow packet through the slit at what he considered to be hand height. It was yanked downward and away a moment later.

“Aha! He does have a much better eye than Sojiro after all,” she mumbled, seemingly to herself. “Here, your payment,” she said, shoving an envelope through the crack in the door in the same way.

“This doesn’t look suspicious at all,” Akira joked. “Actually, I wanted to ask, do you just code? Or can you do other stuff too?” The boy from the other day had said she’d done something to his phone. If it was true, Akira could think of a few things he’d like her help with.

There was a long silence, but the hovering envelope reassured him that she was still there. “What kind of other stuff? Are you the fuzz? Is this a deep cover operation?”

“No, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about a phone app, and maybe get you to pull a few messages?”

“Hmm… I think you just made this suspicious. Show me the app,” she said as she withdrew the envelope.

Akira unlocked his phone and opened the app before handing it to her, making sure to proffer it at her height. Once again it was immediately snatched.

“Wow, you’d trust me with your unlocked phone?” There were a few concerning moments of silence. “Hey, I’m going to send your boyfriend an ‘I love you’ text.”

“Hey!” Akira protested, stepping forward with half a mind to shove the door open.

“Foolish fool, I have my delivery, the money, and your phone now. I hold all the cards!”

“Futaba-chan, just look at the app please,” he tried, but it was hard to keep his voice even. He hoped she was just being annoying, and that she wasn’t actually that ruthless.

“Ok, ok, sheesh. Huh, the black and red eye thing? I’ve seen this before.”

“When?” Akira asked quickly. Was she like him? Or did she know Crow?

“Some guy paid me an inordinate amount of money to write a simple program to search its database. Wanted me to check all the names of Shujin Academy students and their immediate family for matches.”

It seemed that had been Crow’s first step in finding out enough to recruit Ryuji and Ann. Still, he did wonder why Shujin had been the target. Did Crow go there as well, or was he looking to make another school the centre of attention?

“What was his name?”

“I don’t know, these things are done anonymously for a reason.”

Informing Futaba she had aided a serial killer probably wasn’t the best thing to do right now. “Ok, look, I don’t know how this hacking stuff works, but just tell me. Can you hack my ‘boyfriend’s’ phone and see if there’s a group message between him, a girl called Takamaki Ann, and a third guy? I want to know everything you can find out about the other guy.”

Futaba gasped dramatically. “Is he cheating on you?”

Akira brought a hand to his head. “No, but look, you don’t have to go through everything. What you find could be pretty shocking. Just give me the data in a form that I can look through it.”

“Hmm, I should be able to ID their devices based on the message metadata,” Futaba mumbled to herself. “But this guy could be using a burner phone, in which case you might not get much on him.”

“That’s fine, anything is better than the nothing I have to work with now.”

“Ok then, you’ve got yourself a deal. But this is going to cost a lot more than your delivery fee.”

Akira winced, but he’d been expecting the hit. He took his phone and the envelope when she shoved them at him once more. Surprisingly, there was still something in the envelope.

“I’ll get the data to you as soon as I’m done,” she said gleefully before closing the door.

Akira made his way back to Leblanc, feeling a little guilty when Sojiro simply greeted him like normal. They hadn’t ended up talking about Futaba yet, but he didn’t mind. As Ryuji kept saying, he was too nosy for something like that to slow him down.

The moment Sojiro went out to get some cigarettes, Akira quickly returned to his room. Morgana was sitting on the shelf near the stairs, licking his butt.

“Morgana!”

Morgana rolled his eyes at him, but did pause. “We’ve seen each other go to the toilet, Akira. The only way left is up.”

“You lick my hand with that tongue!”

Morgana harrumphed, or got as close as he could in his normal cat form. “This is just nature’s toilet paper.”

“Whatever you do, don’t use nature’s toilet paper in Mementos,” Akira muttered. “Come on, we have to head to Shibuya soon.”

Morgana finally sat up properly. “Great, let’s get some training in too!”

Akira shook his head slightly before going back downstairs to watch the place for a few more minutes, until Sojiro got back. He didn’t want to disappoint Morgana, but even if he really had been human once, he probably didn’t want to remember it in the context of his new cat life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P5 failed to capture how much a talking cat would be the worst thing ever, don’t @ me
> 
> Oh, and this story still has the Ann/Shiho side plot, I just removed the tag because it looks like it’s going to have much less focus on it than I thought it would originally. Akira just won’t shut up :p


	8. Chapter 8

Akira waited in a dark corner at the entrance to Mementos for Ryuji and the others to return. He hadn’t been game enough to go down and do any training. He was worried he might get caught up and miss them on their way out. Or worse, inadvertently encounter them with no chance to hide this time.

Eventually he and Morgana were rewarded for their patience when the group came stumbling back up the escalator. Crow and Ann stepped off it first, with Ryuji and another girl trailing behind them. Ryuji hobbled over to one of the benches on the other side of the room, breathing unevenly. He was holding both his leg and his stomach.

The girl had a cut on her arm and looked shaken up, if not as physically beaten up. She sat next to Ryuji. “I’m not going to make it home like this,” she squeaked.

The combination of a hat and a mask made it more difficult to potentially recognise her. But the fact Crow was trying to get more people involved in all of this was concerning in its own right. Did he have even bigger ambitions?

“Then you’d better hope you have time to get enough rest before something comes up that escalator,” Crow replied harshly.

“Hey, I’m strong enough to heal them up now,” Ann interjected as she flipped one of her pigtails.

“You most certainly will not,” he snapped as he jabbed a finger at the exit. “They’ve already made it apparent that the lesson needs a chance to sink in.”

Ann looked like she might defy him for a moment, but then her posture caved. She glanced back at the other two. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled before walking forward and fading back into reality.

Crow gave them one last undoubtedly withering look before following her out, probably to make sure she wasn’t just going to turn around and come back again. Akira waited a few minutes to be sure neither of them were going to do just that before leaving the shadows and approaching.

Ryuji spotted him first, immediately trying to sit up as he lifted his shotgun from whatever form of hammerspace their schoolbags turned into here. But some combination of his posture and hair seemed to make him recognisable, as he’d feared.

Or maybe it was a good thing right now.

“Akira?” he asked, sounding a little out of it. But he immediately lowered his weapon. “What the hell are you wearing?”

Both amused and mildly offended, Akira stopped to stand over him, mentally focused on choosing a Persona that knew Diarama. “This coming from the person in a pirate onesie.”

Ryuji kicked him in the shin even as he relaxed back in his seat. “Oh good, it really is you,” he replied dryly. “Don’t insult my soul clothes like that, man.”

“Relax Haru-san, I’ll help you,” Morgana said from knee height as he dug around in his bag. Akira glanced down at her and realised her voice and hair did match the girl he’d met a few weeks ago.

Haru jumped and raised her feet off the ground, leaning closer to Ryuji. Her eyes were wide with fear that was far beyond the surprise Morgana’s form might induce. Akira guessed she had been struck by one of those attacks that left a weird effect.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the talking cat,” Ryuji commented, then gave a heavy sigh as Akira’s ability took effect.

“I am not a cat!” Morgana exclaimed as he managed to take hold of Haru’s hand and squirt some relax gel out onto it. “You’ll feel better in a moment.” He used his Persona’s ability to heal her wound as well.

Haru stared at her hand in wonder before finally relaxing back into her seat. “Thank you,” she said faintly as she nodded in Morgana’s direction. “And you, Akira-kun.”

Morgana looked around in paranoia. “Hey, you two shouldn’t use his name here. Anyone could be listening. I mean, if you didn’t keep calling that other guy ‘Crow’ we’d know his real identity by now.”

“Oh, sorry. What should we call you, then?” Haru asked.

Akira shrugged, not having expected to be put on the spot about this. Morgana made an odd noise. “I’m glad you ask, because I’ve been thinking about it,” he said smugly. “How about Joker?”

It took Akira a moment to figure out what he was talking about. “Like a wildcard?”

“Yeah!” Morgana replied happily, clearly pleased with himself.

“Well, I can’t think of anything else.”

“Dude,” Ryuji said mournfully as he shook his head. He made an effort to stand up, and seemed to be surprised when he managed it more or less normally. “Damn, you’re both good at healing? We’ve been struggling with only Ann being able to do that. Er, Panther, whatever.”

“He does this to you often?”

Ryuji rested his hands on his hips and leaned his weight on his uninjured leg. “Yeah, apparently he’s above hitting us himself, but doesn’t mind leaving us to suffer in a tough fight when he’s pissed.”

Akira frowned and shoved his hands in his pockets. “That doesn’t make it any better.”

“Tell me about it,” Ryuji muttered as he took a few cautious steps in the direction of the exit.

Haru stood up as well, probably not wanting to risk being left alone in a place like this. “Are you saying he’s going to do this again?”

Ryuji paused and looked back at her. “Well yeah, if you keep pissing him off. Maybe Panther is the smartest one of the three of us.”

“I know that she is undoubtedly being pressured in the same way we are, but does following him really not bother her at all?”

Ryuji rubbed his neck. “I dunno, but I think it’s more complicated than that. She’s probably convinced herself that it’s her fault Suzui was… Well, if she feels like she should be punished for not doing something sooner, then maybe this feels like some kinda messed up penance.”

“That is messed up,” Haru mumbled, the words not quite seeming to be comfortable in her mouth.

“Anyway, we should get outta here,” Ryuji added. “He might come back to gloat. And if he finds out we’re not hanging on by a thread anymore he’ll ask questions about how we healed ourselves.”

“Are you sure you’ll both be able to make it home?” Akira asked quickly. The full effect of Mementos never really hit him until he was back in the real world.

“It’s ok, I’ll get a car for us,” Haru said. “I’ll drop you off, Ryuji-kun.”

Ryuji was clearly confused. “You mean like a taxi? Don’t worry about it, the train would be faster and cheaper.”

Haru looked away and let a finger twist into one of her curls. “No, not like a taxi. I’m an Okumura.” Akira tried to remember why that name sounded familiar, but Ryuji seemed to be just as clueless. “As in, Okumura Foods. We’ll be able to trust the driver.”

Ryuji scratched the back of his head. “Why the hell’re you at Shujin again?”

Haru sighed softly and rubbed one of her arms. “I thought I might be able to experience some normalcy if I obscured my identity. Normally people are only nice to me because they’re trying to impress my father.” She huffed with contempt. “At least _he_ was straightforward about what he wanted from me. Even if I don’t want to be responsible for funding these crimes.”

“What? He’s hitting you up for money on top of all that?” Ryuji shook his head. “Prick.”

Haru giggled softly, though she didn’t exactly look happy. “Well, thanks again you two. I guess we’ll see you at school. Good luck on your exams.”

“Don’t remind me!” Akira heard Ryuji exclaim before the two of them disappeared.

He turned back to Morgana before titling his head in the direction of the escalators. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

“Oh yeah!” Morgana cheered enthusiastically, seeming to have noticed his sudden increase in motivation. He happily followed him into the bowels of Mementos.

They wouldn’t be able to do anything about either of their problems if they didn’t get stronger.

* * *

Akira regretted not checking his phone until he got home when he saw a certain message.

_I’m gonna assume you weren’t the one who sent that._

Akira frowned and scrolled back up the thread between him and Ryuji. It didn’t take long to realise what he was talking about. It seemed Futaba’s lightning thumbs had had time to send a _WUV U UWU_ after all.

_wat do u mean bb_

Naturally Ryuji’s answer consisted of nothing but seven different variations of sparkling heart emoji.

* * *

Akira inhaled the sweet taste of freedom as he waited on the grassy area near the courtyard. Since everyone else had fled the school the moment their exams were done, he’d let Morgana out of his bag to bask in the sun. He deserved to relax after helping him avoid several dumb mistakes over the past few days.

It didn’t take long for Ryuji to appear with a drink in each hand. He squatted next to Akira and gave him one. He looked pleased with himself.

Akira was just glad a week out of the metaverse seemed to have let his leg recover a bit.

“Thanks. How did you go?”

Ryuji finished taking a long drink before answering. He absently scratched the corner of Morgana’s jaw, making the cat lazily lift his head to get more.

“Not terrible! I think,” he replied, sounding happy. “The mind map thing really worked. I could remember where things were and how many there should be, even if I didn’t get all the details.”

“I’m glad it helped,” Akira replied sincerely. “Just think of how much you’ll remember if you don’t leave it all to the week before.”

Ryuji narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re only going to get on my back about this even more now, aren’t ya?”

Akira smiled and looked away, using taking a sip of his drink as an excuse to not answer. Ryuji lightly punched his arm. Akira just smiled at him pleasantly.

“Anyway, weren’t we going to talk to your mother sometime soon?”

Ryuji rested his face against his hand and let out a slow exhale. “I guess. Gonna have to wait until later in the week, though. She picked up a bunch of shifts over the next few days.”

“What’s wrong? Isn’t this the best way to get you out of the situation with Crow?”

Ryuji scratched his head. “I mean, probably. But what about the girls? Maybe there is some advantage to still being there. ‘Least then his violence and pettiness is aimed at me instead.”

“Well, I wasn’t intending to leave them to suffer,” Akira replied. “If things are complicated, it just means we can work toward more than one at a time.”

“It’s true,” Morgana added lazily, letting out a purr when Akira stroked his forehead. “Operation Free the Murder Gang starts today!” He paused for a moment. “Wait, make that tomorrow.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes. “We’re not—” he began to protest, but his anger seemed to peter out before it got a chance to build up. He sat heavily on his bottom before digging the fingers of one hand between the short blades of grass.

“Being coerced into helping him hurt people isn’t the same as choosing to do it yourself,” Akira said quietly. “There’s a way out of this. We’ll find it.”

Ryuji’s fingers dug into the ground deeper. “If there’s a way to bring that asshole to justice without getting myself executed, we’ve gotta find that too.”

Akira’s hand moved without much conscious input. He smoothed it over Ryuji’s, making him relax a little. Ryuji glanced up at him before looking away. He inhaled deeply and Akira felt his hand tighten around his.

He wasn’t going to let go any time soon.


	9. Chapter 9

“Why do you come here if all you do is mope?”

Ann glanced up at Shiho and tried to smile. “Sorry, I’m just worried about my exam results.” She didn’t want to lie, but it wasn’t like she could tell the truth.

Shiho cocked an eyebrow, clearly not buying it. “Been worrying about them for the past three weeks, have you?”

Of course Shiho would have noticed a change in her behaviour, even if she was busy recovering from her own injuries. Ann hung her head and didn’t reply.

Shiho struggled to sit up in her bed a little straighter. “Hey, I want you to come to my rehabilitation session today. You’ll see that with a bit more work, I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, of course you will,” Ann replied as she crossed her legs and leaned forward in the chair. “You’re strong, Shiho.”

Shiho was silent, but her eyes remained on Ann. She felt like she was being analysed.

“Just tell me who it is, Ann. I thought you’d be fine now that he’s…” Shiho looked down at her lap. “If you think you’re protecting me by not telling me or whatever, it’s not going to work. I want to help you.”

Ann drew closer to herself and avoided her gaze. But even if she couldn’t be entirely honest, maybe it was worth saying something to allay Shiho’s worries. Although her situation had arguably worsened, she wasn’t being personally victimised in the same way anymore.

“Someone is making me do bad stuff. I know they’d find a way to hurt you if I don’t do as they say.”

Shiho narrowed her eyes. “What kind of bad things?”

Ann shifted uncomfortably. She could have worded that better. Now Shiho probably thought she was still being harassed.

“It’s nothing remotely like what Kamoshida was doing,” Ann said firmly.

Shiho seemed to believe her. “Ok. But you should know I’m not completely helpless in here. You need to believe I can hold my own, then you can tell them to screw off.”

Ann bit her lip. Of course she didn’t think Shiho was weak or incapable. But she also couldn’t say someone would come after her with a gun without raising more questions.

“I know you’re strong,” Ann said quietly.

When she looked up, Shiho didn’t seem to be convinced. But before she could say as much, one of the ward nurses had come in to get Shiho prepared for her session.

Watching Shiho drag herself along the rails with a pained expression and red face was confronting, but by the end of it the physio seemed to be happy with her progress for the day. She was praised for putting in so much effort and told to rest up well for next time.

Once Shiho had been tucked back into bed Ann didn’t stick around for much longer. Shiho gave her an intense look as she left, even though her eyes looked heavy enough to close already.

If only things really were as simple as Shiho seemed to think.

* * *

Akira ran his hands over the front of his jacket once again, checking for wrinkles and lint on autopilot. Ryuji rolled his eyes at him as he held the elevator door open for him.

“What’re you so nervous about? It’s just my mum.”

Akira paused and closed his hands, not quite sure what to do with them. He knew he shouldn’t answer the door with them shoved in his pockets. He frowned as he tried to figure out why that felt so important right now.

“I don’t know. This is our best chance to solve your problem, isn’t it? I don’t want to screw it up.”

Ryuji scrutinised him, seemingly unconvinced. “Just relax, jeez. Even if something goes wrong, we can always try again another time. Looking at you like this, anyone’d think you’re meeting your SO’s parents.”

Akira froze even as the elevator dinged to announce its arrival at Ryuji’s floor. “Am I not?” he tried to joke, but it came out sounding far too serious.

Ryuji’s face flushed as he dragged him out of the elevator and down the hallway. He avoided responding right up until they were standing outside his door. “We… need to have a proper talk about that later,” he eventually choked out before taking out his keys and unlocking the door. “Just act normal for now.”

Akira would have joked about not knowing how to do that, but suddenly the door was open and Ryuji was announcing their arrival. His mother was leaning over the kitchen counter with her phone out, but she quickly looked up at them when the door opened.

The first thing he noticed was that she looked young. Akira doubted she was older than thirty-five. Her hair was done up in a messy bun, but her clothes looked a little too nice to be what she normally wore around the house. Akira couldn’t help but notice Ryuji didn’t really look like her, which probably meant he resembled his father.

That had to be difficult for them.

“Oh, Ryuji! I was just about to text and ask you to pick a couple things up for dinner. Could you…?”

“Sure, what’d you need?” he agreed immediately.

She listed off a few things as she took his school bag and blazer and handed over a reusable shopping bag and some money. Ryuji was already turning away when he finally seemed to remember that Akira was there.

“Uh, I won’t be long?”

“It’s fine, we’ll have a cold drink waiting for you when you get back.” She glanced down at the blazer folded over her arm. “They are changing to summer uniforms soon, right?”

Ryuji glanced at Akira questioningly. Obviously he’d missed that homeroom announcement. “The week after next, it sounds like,” Akira said.

“All right, won’t be long,” Ryuji repeated more firmly this time. He glanced at Akira one last time before hurrying over to the stairwell.

When he was gone, Misaki stepped back into the room and looked up at Akira, eyebrows creasing together briefly. Akira tried to lean back slightly in an attempt to look less imposing. Ignoring this, she turned back to the apartment’s interior.

“Come in and sit down,” she said as she crossed the room. She gestured toward the small, low dining table as she passed it.

“Uh, right,” Akira agreed quietly, slightly thrown off by the lack of usual formalities. He removed his shoes before taking a seat on the floor and putting his bag down next to him.

Misaki started preparing drinks using glasses from the fridge, ice, and some kind of flavouring before adding the cool drink itself. The result was a swirl of green and pink that most certainly wasn’t alcoholic, but looked like it should be. Maybe she went full throttle with this stuff because she worked in a bar?

She put one of the glasses in the fridge before bringing the other two to the table. “You know, Ryuji talks about you a lot, Akira-kun,” she said lightly as she put one of them down in front of him. But she didn’t take a seat. “What exactly is the nature of your relationship?”

Akira was almost certain she’d sent Ryuji out to do something else on purpose now. But he didn’t know how to answer her question. He wasn’t sure of the answer himself at the moment, but he also didn’t know whether Ryuji was out of the closet at home.

Besides, he’d thought he was going to be the one asking questions today.

“We’re good friends,” he eventually settled on saying. It wasn’t a lie, even if it might not encompass the entire truth.

She wasn’t pleased by his answer. “Don’t bullshit me,” she snapped as she rested her foot on the edge of the table and shoved it forward.

Surprised, Akira managed to catch the edge of it in his hands before it could move too far. He frowned up at her, and realised she was observing his reaction.

“Just ask what you want to ask,” Akira said evenly.

Fortunately Misaki removed her foot from the table at that. Akira lowered his hands as well.

“My son has been coming home with strange injuries that he refuses to say anything about since the start of semester. Then all of a sudden I start hearing about this boy he’s grown close to in a very short amount of time. A little surface digging shows this kid has a criminal record for assault. What am I supposed to think about that?”

She stood tall with her fists clenched, staring him down. Almost like she was expecting him to react unpredictably and possibly violently.

But then, of course she was worried about the possibility. Ryuji had said it himself.

“I didn’t transfer to Shujin until the start of the third week. He was getting hurt since before then, right?” Akira folded his hands on the table in front of him, trying to provide some assurance that he wasn’t going anywhere.

She glanced away as a thoughtful look crossed her face. “Right,” she agreed quietly. “I’ll look into that to make sure,” she warned.

Akira shrugged slightly. “I have no interest in hurting your son or anyone else at school. I don’t expect you to believe me, but I was sued by someone for something I didn’t do.” She looked doubtful about the latter half of his explanation, but he supposed that was only fair since they were still essentially strangers.

“Then, since you spend so much time with him, are you aware of what is going on?”

Akira brought his chin to his chest, once again unsure of how to answer. “I am, but it’s difficult to explain. I’m doing everything I can to get him out of this situation, though.”

“Why?”

Akira pressed his fingertips into the smooth tabletop. “Because I’m a nosy bastard who can’t leave well enough alone. And… I care about Ryuji.”

She gave him another searching look. Eventually she nodded.

“I’m sorry for being over the top,” she said quietly as she took a step back. “Honestly, I didn’t think it had anything to do with you. The way Ryuji talks about you, it just wouldn’t make sense. But I had to see for myself.”

Akira rubbed the back of his neck. “I understand. Ryuji mentioned… about his father.” She looked surprised, and he guessed it wasn’t something he was normally open about. “He’s lucky to have mum like you. Mine is just apathetic.”

Her expression was hard to read, but Akira got the distinct impression he’d said something she didn’t agree with. But before he could try and get her to elaborate, the apartment door suddenly swung open behind him.

“I think I got it all,” Ryuji called, steamrolling over the mood he was clearly oblivious to. By the time he’d closed the door behind him and turned around, his mother was smiling again and putting his drink on the table.

“What did you do, sprint all the way there and back?” she teased, ruffling his hair as he sat down. “But thanks sweetie, sorry for forgetting again. I should start getting ready for work. I’ll make you something before I go.”

“You don’t have to. I can sort something out.”

“I have time,” she insisted lightly.

Ryuji rolled his eyes, but he seemed to be ready to give in. “Oh!” he added as he sat up and pulled his phone out. “I’ve gotta show you this.” He held his phone out to his mother and she took it.

She zoomed in and scrolled across, and Akira realised she must be looking at the photo of the exam results Ryuji had taken earlier that day. The further she scrolled, the more her smile grew.

“You passed them all? Good job, Ryuji!” she said happily as she gave his phone back. “That settles it, I’m definitely cooking tonight,” she teased.

“Well, you better make something for this guy too. It’s his fault,” Ryuji teased as he shoved Akira lightly.

“Well maybe if you had have started earlier in the semester,” muttered as he elbowed him in return.

She made a sound of amusement. “All right then, I’m sure I can sort something out.”

They both watched her leave the main living area, probably headed for her room or the bathroom. The moment she was out of sight, Ryuji turned to look at Akira. “So?”

Akira looked down at his drink and took another sip. “Later,” he said quietly.

He had his suspicions about where her shadow had come from, but he didn’t think Ryuji was going to take any of them well. It’d be better to wait until she was gone if he was going to cause Ryuji to inadvertently raise his voice.

“What is this, anyway?” Akira added, knowing changing the subject would be more effective than stonewalling Ryuji.

Ryuji looked down at his own drink. “I dunno man, she started working at an Australian bar earlier this year. Maybe I should get Ann over here so she can practice her English more. Oh, but the best thing is when she brings home these meat pie things,” Ryuji continued obliviously.

Akira nodded as he listened, unable to help but smile at his enthusiasm. He wondered if Ryuji would get mad if he called him cute.


	10. Chapter 10

It still cooled off quickly when the sun went down. Akira waited for Ryuji to get changed before they headed out to Inokashira. They didn’t have time to go for a run, but they had both wanted to get out of the apartment for a bit.

“We should’ve brought some bread for the ducks so we could go full spy movie,” Ryuji joked as he sat on the low wooden fence and looked out over the water.

Akira made a sound of amusement and joined him, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Well, we could always take a boat out away from the shore so we can’t be overheard,” he teased.

Ryuji frowned. “Isn’t that more like a murder mystery thing? Then they’ll have to prove you didn’t shoot me even though you were the only other one in the boat.”

“Aren’t you the one who carries around a sawn-off shotgun?”

“It ain’t real! It’s just close enough to work in the metaverse.” He paused. “Wait, are you saying you’ve been running around fighting things with only one teammate and no gun all this time?”

Akira shrugged. “Guess I’d better fix that.”

“Remind me to show you where the airsoft shop is next time we go through Shibuya.”

Akira nodded slowly, then glanced at Ryuji. “Well anyway, speaking of spy movies, are you going to tell me who he is yet?”

Ryuji bent over further so he could run his hands through his hair. “I can’t. If he ever found out, he’d fuck up whatever I have left of my life before ending it. And it wouldn’t change anything, anyway. There’s nothing either of us could do to him.”

“Ryuji,” Akira said quietly, but he couldn’t refute that when he didn’t have any context. He tapped his toes against the ground and laced his fingers under his chin tightly. He’d just have to hope Futaba was having more luck in that department. “Then, isn’t there something else we should talk about while we’re here?”

Ryuji looked down at the ground as his face heated up. “Y-yeah, I mean…” He hesitated for a moment before jumping right into it. “When I said I liked guys you didn’t say anything about whether you did or not, so I guess I didn’t want to assume. But things are kind of… we’re kind of…”

“We’re more than just friends,” Akira finished, putting him out of his misery. Ryuji nodded gratefully. “I didn’t say anything because I haven’t really thought about it before now. I guess I don’t usually think about other people in that way at all. So it kind of snuck up on me too.”

Ryuji raised an eyebrow. “Really? Not at all?”

Akira shrugged. “I don’t really look at people that way unless I know them well. And by then it usually feels too awkward to bring it up.” He smiled and elbowed Ryuji. “But hey, since you started it, I guess I can say this is your fault.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes and knocked his knee into Akira’s. “Me? You’re the stalker!”

“‘I wouldn’t say you’re not my type’,” Akira imitated, clasping his hands together at his chest like some shojo protagonist.

“Oh shut up!” He shoved Akira, nearly making him fall backward off the fence. He managed to recover somehow and laughed to himself. “What’s your excuse, huh? Don’t you have standards?” Ryuji added.

Akira adjusted his glasses as he tilted his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ryuji looked away, awkward all of a sudden. “Well, you ain’t exactly ever seen me at my best. I wasn’t always a fucking loser who was hated or ignored by everyone.”

“You’re one of the few people who talk to me like I’m a person, and not about me like I’m a nuisance. I know that sounds like a low bar, but you’ve seen what things are like at school.” He paused thoughtfully. “More importantly, just because everyone treats you differently, it doesn’t mean you’re the one who changed.”

Ryuji seemed to need a moment to consider that one. “Well, sure I did. I can’t do anything now my leg is fucked up. The school can’t exactly kick me out, because it’s their fault I got injured, but it’s pretty obvious they don’t want me there now I can’t give them good press at track meets.”

“I don’t think it’s fair to say you can’t do anything. That metaverse stuff isn’t easy.”

Ryuji shook his head. “I’m always hurting myself when I try to do things. I’ve just got a few Persona skills that asshole doesn’t, or something.”

Akira sat up a little straighter. He wasn’t quite sure how to convince him otherwise.

“Do you think we would have got along if you were still a jock?”

Ryuji seemed to be confused by the question. “I dunno, probably? The rumours wouldn’t have gone around that quickly if Kamoshida just… was never there.”

Akira nodded. “Mishima told me he was pressured by him into spreading my record around. And about Ann and Suzui. And the rest of the volleyball team.”

Ryuji sighed. “I didn’t want to kill him, but our backs were against the wall. Ann and I tried to confront him in the real world about Suzui first, but then he started going on about getting us expelled. We couldn’t just do nothing.” Ryuji rubbed a hand over his eyes. “At first I thought we would just be able to beat him up in the other world and it’d have some kinda effect here. But I…” Ryuji trailed off as his shoulders rose. He looked away guiltily. “I didn’t stop Crow either.”

“What could you have done?” Akira asked, honestly curious. Based on what he’d heard, the reason they were still being bullied into compliance by this Crow guy was that he was stronger than them. His leverage wouldn’t do much good if they could just beat him up over there.

“I dunno,” Ryuji muttered as he drew a knee up and tucked it under his chin. “Something that wasn’t nothing.”

Akira put a hand on Ryuji’s back. He flinched slightly, but quickly relaxed. Akira shuffled closer so Ryuji could lean into his side.

“I honestly don’t know what to say,” Akira said quietly. “I’m not going to try and pretend I understand what it would have felt like to be cornered like that. I guess it was inevitable the people he was hurting were either going to explode or implode. And it’s not your fault there was someone else waiting in the wings to take advantage of that.”

Ryuji shook his head. “Don’t try and make excuses for my shitty decisions.”

“I’m not,” Akira insisted, even if it probably wasn’t entirely true. Again, revealing how much he knew to Ryuji was a risk, but he couldn’t stay silent now. “He hired a hacker to search the app’s database for Shujin students with friends or relatives that have shadows or palaces. All of this was meticulously planned out long before he tried to get you involved.”

Ryuji squinted up at him. “How the hell did you find that out?”

Akira shrugged. “Luck, mostly. But I met her. She didn’t seem to be aware of why he wanted the information or what the app was for, so I think he just used her too.” Akira smiled slightly, his drive to lighten the mood coming back. “She was the one who sent that text.”

“Really? I thought the uwu was very you.”

They both laughed a little. Akira squeezed Ryuji’s shoulders and the silence returned. Or, what passed for silence in Tokyo. He was getting used to the noise in the city, though.

When he looked back at Ryuji, he still had a frown etched into his face. “So what, are you saying this is you at your worst?” Akira asked eventually, trying to keep his tone lighter.

Ryuji huffed. “Basically.”

“Well, maybe you can’t see it, but I’ve already found plenty to like about you. So I’ll just have to look forward to seeing you when you feel like you’re at your best again.”

Ryuji immediately turned away and yanked his oversized hood over his head. “Would you stop saying that embarrassing shit!?”

“Not as long as it’s true,” Akira teased as he raised a leg and shifted so he was straddling the fence instead. He pulled Ryuji back in when he offered no resistance.

Ryuji looked at him, hands still curled into his jacket. “What is wrong with you, man?”

Akira leaned closer. Ryuji didn’t move away. “What’s so wrong about saying nice things to your boyfriend?”

“You’re still serious about this, huh?” he replied quietly.

“Are you not?”

Ryuji’s brows met, then one of his hands grabbed the front of Akira’s jacket. He yanked him closer. “Course I am, dumbass,” he replied before planting his mouth on Akira’s.

It was immediately obvious that Ryuji had even less of a clue about what he was doing than Akira, but it wasn’t like he had a wealth of experience either. Akira took hold of his face and changed the angle they were at so his glasses wouldn’t be in danger of being knocked off. Then he sucked Ryuji’s bottom lip into his mouth, pulling a strange noise out of him in the process.

Akira pulled back slightly, but let their foreheads rest together, finding amusement in Ryuji’s attempt to maintain their privacy by keeping his hood up. “You should talk before or after, not during,” he teased.

“Don’t say that like you have more experience!”

Akira just smiled at him. But Ryuji seemed to read into his lack of an answer.

“Didn’t you just say you were some flavour of asexual!?”

Akira rolled his eyes. “Relax, I had a girlfriend for like a week last year. It soon became pretty obvious to both of us that it wasn’t going to work out. And that was before the whole criminal record thing,” he added quietly.

“First you find out about our group, then the hacker thing, and now this? You really are terrifying,” Ryuji said flatly with a small shake of his head.

Akira smiled at him sharply. It felt like a face he’d pull in the metaverse after flattening a particularly tough shadow. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Ryuji seemed to recognise something in his expression. He returned it without hesitation, almost shark-like. “Of course you would.” A moment later he gave yet another heavy sigh. “Why couldn’t you have transferred a few weeks earlier?”

He knew Ryuji wasn’t expecting a proper answer, but he gave one anyway. “It took a while to find a school that’d take me. It seemed my marks were good enough for Shujin to take a chance on me in the end.” He leaned back to sit in a more comfortable position, putting a little space between them. “Though I’m pretty sure they accepted me on the condition I wouldn’t do my senior year there so I wouldn’t affect their tertiary acceptance rate either way.”

“Seriously? So that means you’re moving back home at the end of your probation?”

“If I don’t end up in juvie first,” Akira replied, though it was hard to make light of something that could happen so easily. Even if he did try to behave himself, it’d only take one more inadvertent misstep.

Ryuji nodded. “Well, I guess that’ll be something for us to worry about later. I’ll probably be lucky if I survive to the end of this year, anyway.”

“There is something we can do about that, though,” Akira replied. “But for today the only thing I really managed to notice about your mother is that she doesn’t seem to think she’s a good parent.”

Ryuji dragged his feet along the ground. “Dude, I could’ve told you that.”

Akira shrugged helplessly. “I still think we should just to talk to her in the metaverse. Shadows are usually pretty straightforward about what they want, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about,” Ryuji muttered. “I don’t think I could handle her saying she wished she never had me. Or that she should’ve tried harder to make Dad stay…”

“Then, do you just want me and Morgana to—”

“No! What if you fuck it up?” He ran a stressed hand through his hair again, making his hood finally fall back down. “I mean, not saying it’s likely, but…”

“I’m not trying to be insensitive, but we do need to hurry this up. Before he makes you help him kill someone else, or cause another accident.”

“I know, I know,” he muttered as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Then stop procrastinating,” Akira replied lightly. Ryuji sighed, but didn’t answer. Clearly he needed more time.

But Akira didn’t know if they had it.


	11. Chapter 11

Akira was jammed up against Ryuji in the packed train on their way to school when a familiar blonde head of hair squeezed in between them. Ryuji looked just as confused when their eyes met over the top of Ann’s head.

“Hey there my fellow gays,” she said loudly, very clearly putting on some kind of act. But what, exactly, she was trying to pretend to do, Akira couldn’t be sure. “Fancy running into you two here! Let’s walk to school together!” She very obviously looked over her shoulder at something behind Akira.

“What the hell?” Ryuji complained as Akira looked around to try and see what had spooked her. A groper?

But of course he couldn’t see much past the wall of people around him, and none of them seemed to be obviously suspicious. He shifted a little to the left in an attempt to block her from whoever’s view she was worried about.

“Heh, wowee, we’re nearly there! Hope no weirdoes are following me!” she said the latter part through gritted teeth. But unfortunately for her, Ryuji still didn’t get the hint.

“Get out of my face! Can’t you see there’s room over there?” he exclaimed angrily as he pointed to a spot a bit further down the train with one hand, and fruitlessly tried to use the other to put some distance between them.

“Oh well, we’re nearly there now,” she continued loudly in the exact same tone of voice as she shoved Ryuji’s forearm down.

Akira started when that only resulted in Ann having no option but to press back against him even more. He did his best to lean out of the way and ignore them, but of course Ryuji noticed.

“Get your ass off my boyfriend’s dick! What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh my god, why are you so stupid!?” Ann snapped, finally giving up on her act. If it could be called that. Ryuji was lucky she had less than an inch of space to wind up her punch to his gut. “How do you function!?”

Akira breathed a sigh of relief when the train started to slow down. “Get over to the doors, we’ll stay close.”

Ann huffed and did as suggested. “At least one of you isn’t a goddamn idiot.”

Exiting onto the platform, it was a relief to have a little more space. Ann checked to make sure they were still following her before she stepped onto the escalator.

“Who’s stalking you?” Akira asked, and Ryuji leaned around him to look at them, finally seeming to realise what was wrong.

Ann looked around the platform, but shook her head. “I can’t see him in the crowd.”

They stepped off the escalator, and Akira glanced back again only to see Ryuji was looking sheepish. “We’ve got your back, so stop freaking out,” Ryuji muttered.

Ann ducked her head and hurried along the footpath. Akira looked around once again and saw Ryuji tilt his head slightly. Someone was making a beeline for them after all.

Almost in sync, both of them stopped and turned on the spot. Akira felt the familiar wiggling that was a result of Morgana climbing out of his bag. He started in surprise when he recognised the boy behind them, but Morgana had already leapt off his shoulder with his claws out.

“Leave her be!” he yowled.

“Morgana! No!” Akira yelled even as the boy cried out dramatically and fell on his backside. Akira quickly grabbed Morgana by the scruff of his neck, which made him go limp and let him pick him up. Thankfully Morgana hadn’t had a chance to draw any blood.

“Ah! You!” the boy exclaimed suddenly, pointing at Akira. Morgana wiggled furiously, but Akira wasn’t going to let him escape from his arms again.

“You know him?” Ann demanded. She didn’t seem to be surprised by Morgana’s presence at all. Maybe the cat wasn’t as stealthy in class as he thought. “I thought he was following _me_.”

“Oh, no. I was,” he openly admitted as he got to his feet. Ann took a few nervous steps back.

Akira suspected it wasn’t quite as bad as the boy made it sound, given the situation he’d met him in, but it was probably better to make him confirm that. “Don’t tell me you entered this art contest as well, Ann.”

She looked confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but what’s with the lack of a name suffix?”

Akira hesitated now that he was suddenly on the receiving end of her ire. He hadn’t even thought about what he was saying, so he wasn’t sure how to answer. “You don’t… use them overseas?”

“We’re in Japan! Speaking Japanese!”

Akira looked away and hunched his shoulders. “Uh, sorry. I wasn’t trying to be rude.”

“Don’t treat me weirdly just because you’ve never been outside your backwater town!” Ann added angrily.

Ryuji rolled his eyes and started shoving at her shoulders. “Oh no, how could the person you judged for having a criminal record judge you for looking like a pale ass hoe?”

“What’d you just say!?” Ann demanded, sounding a little too much like Ryuji. “That isn’t even nearly the same!”

Akira turned his attention back to the boy who had kicked off their morning so strangely, though he was a little concerned that when he did turn back he was going to find a Ryuji-shaped smear on the ground. “Anyway, why were you following her?”

“I wanted to ask her to model for my painting!” he proclaimed loudly enough to be heard over the other two’s crass bickering.

“To model?” Ann asked, pausing in her effort to pull Ryuji along by his ear.

Akira stepped in their direction, and thankfully that was enough to get her to let him go. “He goes to an art school,” he explained.

“Yes! I am Kitagawa Yusuke, pupil of the great Madarame Ichiryusai,” he said grandiosely. “Please, won’t you allow me to attempt to capture your likeness for my next painting?”

Ann appeared to be taken aback, yet flattered. Ryuji just rolled his eyes. “All of that? For this?”

When it seemed Yusuke and Ann were finally just negotiating something like normal people, Akira felt it was safe to look away. Now that his arms were more relaxed, Morgana was able to free himself. Fortunately he just moved to climb back into Akira’s bag.

“Hey, check your phone.”

Akira frowned as he took it out. When he unlocked it the weird app came up straight away. It seemed it’d picked up on the name Yusuke had said and added it to the small list of people he’d looked up. More concerningly, the guy had a hit.

“What’s up?” Ryuji asked quietly as they watched Yusuke climb into the car that had pulled up alongside them a moment ago. Ann rejoined them, looking much calmer than before.

“Tell you later,” Akira said quickly, and they continued on their way to school.

* * *

Akira tried not to yawn too obviously as the lady showing them around the TV station continued talking about things he was pretty sure everyone was already aware of. He tried to ignore the glare Kawakami shot him, but was knocked out of his stupor when a man roughly brushed past him to rudely demand the woman move them along.

Akira didn’t miss the way Ryuji’s eyes narrowed at the man, fingers flexing slightly. “Douchebag,” he muttered.

Ann made a quiet sound of agreement as they were dragged over to the next part of the trip, which apparently involved being a studio audience for a talk show. Akira settled in his seat, hoping he wasn’t going to be shown on TV. He’d only chosen this field trip option because Ryuji had already decided on it ages ago.

Ann and Ryuji made startled movements on either side of him, and only then did Akira look up. The only thing that had changed since they’d sat down was that the guest had finally come out to join the hosts.

“It’s really him! Akechi!” one of the girls sitting in front of him whispered excitedly. Her friend giggled and nodded. Akira was pretty sure she was the one who’d been worried he might stab her, but generally he tried to ignore his classmates now.

Akira glanced between Ryuji and Ann once again. Ryuji was staring down at the floor intensely, as though he was afraid of looking up. Ann was gripping the seat of her chair so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if it actually separated from the legs.

This was the same Akechi that he’d overheard Niijima talking to, wasn’t it? There couldn’t be that many high schoolers with that surname on TV. He got a feeling he’d need to talk to her again soon.

“So Akechi-kun, tell us what it’s like to investigate a suspected serial killer,” the male host said as he leaned in a little closer.

“It must be scary!” the woman added.

Akechi nodded solemnly. “It can be quite confronting at times, of course. And being public about the fact I’m the one investigating it is certainly a risk. But I think it’s important the public can see that law enforcement are doing everything we can to put a stop to this.”

“So, what sort of deductions have you been able to make so far?” the female host asked.

Akechi made a soft sound of amusement and tilted his head. “Forgive me for not being able to go into too much detail, but I can’t let the criminal know how much I know. Still, there is a clear connection between several deaths, and it’s even possible some of those terrorist incidents could have been conducted using the same mysterious method. Though I do wonder if we aren’t dealing with a group rather than just an individual.”

Ryuji started forward in his seat again. It was hard to tell from this distance, but Akira was pretty sure Akechi was staring directly at Ryuji. He was reasonably confident he could say Ann and Ryuji weren’t just reacting like this because this guy was investigating them. And though it was hard to be sure, nothing about his appearance was obviously different to the person he knew was blackmailing them.

And by changing the story from a single actor to a group, he’d just given himself plenty of room to throw them under the bus and clean his hands of the whole affair later.

Akira took hold of Ryuji’s hand. “Calm down,” he said quietly.

Ryuji wrenched his hand away and turned away from him. But the so-called detective’s eyes had already shifted to meet Akira’s instead. He seemed to be appraising him while he waited for the show hosts to finish speculating and ask him another question.

It seemed Ryuji had good reason to worry about Akechi knowing they were close. But it was probably a little late to pretend otherwise now.


	12. Chapter 12

The moment they were allowed to leave their seats, the three of them made a beeline for the bathrooms at the other end of the studio. The closer ones would be packed with the other students, and they wanted to get out of there quickly.

“Don’t leave without me!” Ann snapped before disappearing into the ladies’.

Akira followed Ryuji through the other door before letting Morgana come out of his bag again. “That was him!” Morgana exclaimed. “There’s no mistaking the smell.”

Ryuji snorted. “I’d say rude, but who cares?”

“So you’re not denying it?” Akira asked quietly.

“Is there any point in trying? But you see what I mean now, right? Not like there’s anything we can do to him, anyway.”

Akira folded his arms and frowned at the tiled floor. Morgana rubbed up against his leg, and Akira could imagine his concerned expression even if he couldn’t see it right now. He shook his head and glanced up at Ryuji.

“There has to be something we can do. Now that I have a name, I can do a lot more digging.”

“Dude! Don’t make yourself a target!” Ryuji said as he walked back over to him. “I’ve seen him kill with my own eyes. You can’t be next.”

“He can’t use his metaverse trick on me. I have Personas too,” Akira reminded.

Ryuji tilted his head. “As in, plural?”

Akira nodded. “I can… talk shadows into becoming a part of me.” Ryuji raised a confused brow, so he quickly moved on. “Don’t you think the five of us could take him on?”

Ryuji looked down at the floor and shook his head. “Even if you could convince everyone to put their lives and the people they care about on the line, you ain’t seen this guy fight. And I bet me, Ann and Haru haven’t really seen him go all out either. I dunno how long he’s been training in the metaverse for, but he’s way beyond our level. And he knows our weaknesses back to front.”

“Then what if we found a way to prove it’s him? We have a hacker onside.” Even if it had been a suspiciously long time since he’d heard from her last. “And I know someone at our school who knows him on a personal level.”

“Even if we could, that crazy bastard would just take us all down with him. As long as we all got the death penalty he probably wouldn’t give a shit.”

Akira folded his arms and leaned back against the tiled wall. “Then just give me some more time. If he’s out recruiting people, maybe we can too?”

Ryuji made a sound of annoyance and put his face in Akira’s. “What do I have to say to make you get it, man? Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation?”

Akira laughed humourlessly. “Obviously not.” When Ryuji continued frowning, he adopted a softer tone. “What he’s doing to you and the others just isn’t right. And no one else can do anything about it when it involves something so unbelievable.”

Ryuji shook his head firmly. “I’ll… I’ll figure something out!”

“You didn’t sound all that optimistic the other day,” Akira said quietly. He reached out to press his fingers against Ryuji’s forearm.

Ryuji glanced down at the point of contact for a long moment. He spoke quietly. “I’ll admit I need your help. But I also don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You think I don’t feel the same way when I see you suffering?”

Ryuji’s face turned pink and he looked to the side. “Dude, not in front of Morgana.”

“Yeah, not in front of Morgana,” the cat agreed sarcastically. Suddenly his ears twitched and he looked toward the bathroom door.

Akira and Ryuji jumped apart as it swung open. Ryuji stiffened and took another step back when he saw it was Akechi.

Akira swiftly moved to stand in the space between them. He shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned most of his weight on one leg, though his hands were clenched into fists. He was kind of surprised to find this guy was equally as tall as him. Somehow he hadn’t noticed that before. Or maybe Akechi was just that good at making himself look innocuous.

Akechi’s expression twisted with amusement before returning to something more normal as he let the door swing shut behind him. “Hmm, how did I know I’d find you here?” he said over Akira’s shoulder. “But your _friend_ doesn’t seem very happy to see me. You didn’t go opening your mouth, did you?”

“He didn’t need to,” Akira interjected quickly. He had to make Akechi believe he’d figured everything out for himself, or Ryuji was going to pay for it. “When you treat people like shit, it tends to start showing pretty quickly.”

Akechi finally turned his attention to him properly. He raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused.

“You actually thought the transaction you made with that hacker was anonymous, didn’t you?” Akira tried to hide his relief when every ounce of bemused pretence dropped from Akechi’s expression. “Too bad for you, they’re an acquaintance of mine. And they know who you are,” he lied.

Akechi became stony-faced at that. Akira felt some satisfaction in managing to catch him off guard, even if only for a moment.

Akechi rested a hand on his hip as he gave Akira a searching look. He seemed to decide on something when a smirk played around his mouth. “Sounds like this just got interesting. Though I can’t help but wonder if you’ll be able to figure out the rest of it in time.” He looked directly at Ryuji once again. “Perhaps you shouldn’t get too attached.”

Akira frowned at the threat and walked right up into his space. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been forcing them to do,” he said quietly. Akechi took half a step back when he entered his personal space, then a few more when he realised he wasn’t stopping.

He made an attempt to shove Akira away, but he only answered it with an even firmer push. Akechi fell back into the door, which swung back open the other way under his weight. Akira pursued, grabbing Akechi’s lapel and pushing him into the corridor wall.

“Kurusu!” a female voice snapped, immediately making him flinch. Both of them looked up to find Kawakami at the other end of the hallway. “Of course you left to go pick a fight!” she grumbled. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m not done yet?” he replied, but let Akechi brush his hands away. If he got into more legal trouble he wouldn’t be able to help anyone.

“There’s no need to be concerned,” Akechi said to her pleasantly. “I did say a few things I shouldn’t have. But to be frank, these two sneaking off to the bathroom together should probably be of concern to their teacher.”

As if on cue, Ryuji emerged from the bathroom as well. Akira suspected he’d hid Morgana in his own bag for now. Kawakami glanced between them, then sighed. She sounded even tireder than Ryuji.

“All right, look. I didn’t want to say anything before now because I didn’t want it to seem like I was singling you two out and being a bigot. Obviously we can’t ban relationships between students altogether, but you can’t be mooning after each other to the extent that it’s distracting you from your schoolwork.”

“Didn’t you see my last lot of exam results?” Ryuji interrupted with a scowl. Clearly Kawakami wasn’t his favourite teacher.

“What do you want, congratulations for finally achieving above the bare minimum?” she snapped, but almost immediately looked guilty for doing so. “Anyway, disappearing during an excursion isn’t helping you prove your point!”

“O-oh, it’s not what it seems like, Sensei,” Ann began as she emerged from the bathroom, making Kawakami start in surprise. “One of the crew were being weird and asking me for my phone number, so I asked the guys to come with me to the bathroom, just in case.”

Kawakami glanced between the four of them. It was obvious at least one of them was lying. She rubbed her forehead.

“Just sign out and get on your train home so I’m not responsible for you, already,” she mumbled as she held out the clipboard.

“Well then, Ann, Ryuji… Kurusu,” Akechi said with a nod before excusing himself.

Akira worried his bottom lip. He suspected the first person Akechi was going to ask about him was his school’s student council president.

Once they’d been dismissed, they made their way to the station together. Akira was surprised when Ryuji followed him onto his transfer, but it wasn’t like he minded. It wasn’t quite rush hour, so they managed to find one seat. Ryuji insisted on him sitting down, and Akira didn’t have the energy to argue.

“I don’t need you towering over me,” Ryuji joked as he took hold of the handle overhead and bent forward.

Akira crossed his legs and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Like I don’t do that even when we’re both standing,” he teased.

“I ain’t that short!” Ryuji protested.

“Well, maybe if you stood up straight for once…”

Ryuji stepped on his foot, and Akira felt his shoulders shake as he tried not to laugh. They settled into silence, though Akira suspected their minds had turned to the same thing.

“So that’s the guy who’s been tormenting you,” Akira commented. “Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to scare him.”

Ryuji shook his head. “No shit.” But after a few moments he let out a soft laugh. “Did you see the look on his face, though? Almost worth the impending death threat.” They both glanced up when Yongen-Jaya was announced, then made their way over to the doors. “Should’ve got something to eat first,” Ryuji commented as they made their way back to street level.

“Can always see what Sojiro has left over,” Akira replied. “Is your mum working?”

Ryuji nodded. “Shit man, we have to do something about her shadow now. What if he spits it?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying the whole time,” Akira teased lightly as he paused outside the café. “Are you going to talk to her, or are we going straight to Mementos?”

“I’ll talk to her when she gets home tonight,” Ryuji said quietly. “But I still dunno what to say.”

“I’m not going to pretend I know what you should do. Let’s just worry about getting something to eat for now.” When Ryuji nodded, Akira pushed the door open.

Sojiro glanced up from where he was drying the last of the dishes. It seemed he’d already given up on getting any more customers for the day. His frown deepened when he saw the two of them in the doorway.

“Hey, I got a call from your school just now,” he said gruffly, without any preamble.

Akira glanced at Ryuji, who already looked worried. “What about?” Akira asked.

Sojiro flung the tea towel over his shoulder and shifted uncomfortably. “Look, I don’t have time to act as a chaperone for you two. So no more sleepovers, and you’re to go home by eight.”

Akira tilted his head. It was annoying, but he suspected he would have been given the same mandate if he were with a girl. “Just what do you think we’ve been doing up there?” he asked, mostly because he was sure it would fluster his otherwise perpetually composed guardian.

Sojiro raised an eyebrow. “I don’t _want_ to know,” he said sharply, “but those are the rules from now on.”

Akira nodded before glancing over at Ryuji. He was beet red and looking anywhere but at Sojiro. Seemingly satisfied, the older man nodded.

“Help yourselves to the leftovers on the top shelf if you haven’t eaten already,” he added before turning away to finish up with closing down. A few minutes later he was gone.

Ryuji sighed as he flopped down in one of the booth seats. “That bastard won’t even let me have this.”

“Well, lucky ‘this’ isn’t up to him,” Akira commented as he opened the fridge and chose something to warm up. It really must have been a slow day in the café. “Do you think they rang your mum too?”

Ryuji sat bolt upright at his words, his face seeming to lose some of its colour. Akira hadn’t been expecting him to be so alarmed.

“Ryuji, I think she already knows. Probably has for a long time.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, just based on some of the questions she asked me,” Akira added quietly.

To his surprise, Ryuji laughed. “Dude, you were supposed to ask her the questions, remember?”

Somehow, Akira didn’t think Ryuji had any idea of how terrifying his own mother could be. “Oh, right,” he agreed, playing along for now.

Maybe he’d see a hint of it later tonight.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did tag this fic as ‘references to suicide’, but heads up that it’s particularly heavy on that topic in the first scene of this chapter.  
> Also I literally only just realised Akechi takes the guard's gun in that one scene, rather than pull out his own. But we're too deep into the gun thing now, so I'm saying he has an extraordinary license as a homicide detective ok XD

Akira wasn’t a fan of the fact he didn’t have a proper bathroom in his home, but having a cheap bathhouse so close was almost better. He returned to his room feeling relaxed and sleepy, right up until his phone started blaring from where he’d just put it down on his bedside table.

His heart was pounding when he answered it, mostly because he kept it on vibrate at all times and hadn’t been expecting the piercing ringtone at full volume. “Hello?” he answered nervously.

“Hey,” Futaba said quietly. “Glad I finally got your attention. I’ve got the info you wanted.”

Akira had seen the missed call notifications before picking up. He guessed he knew what they’d been for now. “Did you hack my phone just to turn its volume up?”

“Among other things,” she replied, but moved on before Akira had a chance to interrogate that further. “How do you want me to send it to you?”

“Email, I guess?” He hadn’t actually thought about that part when he’d asked. “It’s all about Akechi Goro, right?”

“Why did you pay me to do all that if you already know!?”

“I found out while I was waiting for you to get back to me,” he replied, trying not to sound passive aggressive. “But I still don’t know anything about his background or motivation.”

“Oh, well, sorry. But I just couldn’t stop myself from digging. And then I needed a long break after I found out what happened to his mother…”

Akira noticed her voice wobble a little. He glanced in the direction of Sojiro’s house even though he couldn’t see it through the wall. “What do you mean?” he asked softly.

“He’s some politician’s bastard child. She allegedly committed suicide. Because she couldn’t deal with the shame or with supporting him, I guess.” She took a shaky breath and Akira remained silent. “My mum did the same thing, you know? It’s all my fault.”

“Hey, it’s not fair to assume that,” Akira said automatically. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t fair for anyone to be made to feel that way.

“I’m not being dramatic. That’s what was in her suicide note.”

Akira frowned. That might be a little harder to argue with, but it didn’t make it more right. “You didn’t ask to be born.”

“I wish I hadn’t been.”

At her admission, something started to burn in the depths of his gut and behind his eyes. It was oddly similar to the blue flames he felt racing over him in the metaverse.

_Unacceptable._

“I’m coming over.”

“W-what?” Futaba demanded, suddenly sounding panicked. “Don’t you dare! I should never have spoken to you in the first place!”

“There’s a reason you’re trying to reach out to people, isn’t there? The art contest. Talking to me.”

He heard her inhale sharply. “Leave me alone! If you come over here, I’ll tell Sojiro you’re being a creeper,” she snapped before abruptly hanging up.

Akira had no way of calling her back since her number had come through as unlisted. He saw he had a notification about a new email, but there was no other evidence that they’d just had a conversation. He hesitated a little longer before finally sitting down on his bed. There was no point in upsetting her any further. Maybe he could try to talk to her again another day.

Akira opened up the email and realised it was an extensive chain of messages with more attachments than he knew what to do with. He was a bit concerned about how she’d managed to get her hands on copies of things like his birth certificate and firearms license, but he couldn’t say she wasn’t thorough.

It looked like he’d have plenty of reading to keep him occupied in the meantime.

* * *

Misaki felt her shoulders drop with relief when she was finally able to shut the world out with her apartment door. She didn’t mind her job, but putting up with the more unpleasant customers that would inevitably come in now and then was never fun.

Once her shoes were off, she looked around the living area more closely. She was surprised to see Ryuji hadn’t just left the kitchen light on for her. He was still sitting at the table, looking like he was about to nod off.

“Hey Mum,” he greeted as she approached and put her handbag down.

“What’s the matter, Ryuji? Can’t sleep? Leg bothering you?” she asked as she sat down next to him.

“No, it’s been fine,” he replied, oddly quiet. He still hadn’t quite met her eye yet.

Misaki wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed. He immediately leaned into her. “Then what’s up? You’ve got school tomorrow, so you can’t sleep in.”

“I know, it’s just…” Ryuji paused and scratched his head. Misaki waited patiently for him to think about what he wanted to say. “Um, well, first thing… Did you get a call from the school today?”

Of course. She had completely forgotten since she’d received it right before the start of a busy shift. She should have called him on her break instead of leaving him to worry until she got home.

“Yes, but I think their concerns about your academic performance are ridiculous. I trust you to do the right thing, Ryuji. And Akira-kun too.”

Ryuji made a sound somewhere between amusement and surprise. “Um, thanks. But are you really not surprised that he’s a he?”

Misaki laughed quietly at his wording. “I might have been, if you hadn’t been talking about him nonstop for the past month. But no, Ryuji, your partner’s gender is the least of my concerns.”

He didn’t look like he quite believed her. “Really? I thought you’d be more weirded out than this.”

“Well, think of it this way. At least I don’t have to worry about you getting anyone pregnant in the immediate future.”

“Mum!” Ryuji exclaimed as his face burned with embarrassment. “That wouldn’t happen either way!”

Misaki shrugged. “Good. Don’t do what I did.” He gave her a reproachful look and she ruffled his hair. “Not that I regret it, of course. It’d just make your life even harder than it’s already going to be.”

She wished she could give him so much more. Some sense of stability. More of her time and attention. More reliable financial support.

Maybe if his father was still around they would have been able to afford tutors and cram school. He could’ve eventually had a reliable job with a good wage instead of more than likely needing to work multiple minimum wage jobs past retirement.

And she’d be too busy struggling to keep herself afloat to offer her own son any sort of help.

Ryuji rolled his eyes at her. “Mum, it can’t possibly get much worse than it is right now.”

Her arms closed around her torso as she looked away from him. “I’m sorry—”

“That’s not what I meant! Don’t start sayin’ that stuff again.”

His pained expression encouraged her not to insist on continuing that line of conversation. “Then what is the problem? I might not be able to do anything about it, but you can still tell me.”

Ryuji’s expression was cautious when he looked back up her. “That’s kinda what I was really waiting to talk about,” he admitted. “I just have no clue how to explain something that’s so unbelievable. If it wasn’t happening to me, I sure as hell wouldn’t believe it.”

Misaki turned to face him properly and rested her elbow on the table. “Try me.”

Ryuji took a deep breath before giving her a determined look. “Well, there’s this place called the metaverse, kind of like another plane of reality. People who have twisted thoughts and desires exist there as monsters, and I’m being coerced by someone into helping… to beat them up.”

Misaki waited for her son to tell her he was kidding, but he just continued staring at her with the same grim expression. “Is that meant to be some kind of metaphor? Are you being harassed by a gang?”

Ryuji shook his head. “I told you it’s hard to believe without seeing. I meant what I said, but honestly, you’re probably not too far off with that gang thing. It’s just nothing like what you’re thinking.”

“Ok… So, why are you going along with what they want if you’re just getting hurt anyway?” That was her main concern of course. The other details could be sorted out later.

“Because you exist in that world too. And if they kill that version of you, you’ll die here.”

Misaki rubbed her forehead, sighing when she felt her makeup smudge onto her fingers. She didn’t want to dismiss what her son was saying, but it was hard to follow. Still, if she understood the logic, he’d just said something worrying.

“Are you saying I’m twisted?” What was so wrong about wanting to provide her child with a better life than the one she’d had?

Ryuji shrugged uncomfortably. “I dunno who decides what’s distorted, but it’d be a heck of a lot less risky if I could change your mind just by talking it out instead of trying to fight you there. So come on, lay it on me.

“What is it? You wishing for a life where you never had me? Feeling guilty about the fact I don’t have a father figure? Cos let me tell you, I prefer nothing over that dick.”

Misaki shook her head. “I might wish that I’d waited to have you until I was more financially stable, but don’t ever think you’re unwanted Ryuji. I love you.” Addressing what he’d said about his father wasn’t so easy. Maybe he was onto something, even if she didn’t want to think so.

“I… That’s not the point,” he replied, looking embarrassed. “But, you’re not denying what I said about Dad, are you?” Misaki looked down and remained silent. Ryuji shook his head. “Don’t you think we’re better off like this? Imagine what he would’ve done if he’d been the one to get that call from the school.”

“I told you I wouldn’t let him hit you like that again,” she replied weakly. All that should only be directed at her.

“Seeing you getting around with a black eye and wincing all the time wouldn’t be any better!”

She instinctively stiffened when Ryuji raised his voice. Of course he immediately noticed and looked away guiltily. But it wasn’t his fault the only response she had to a loud and angry male voice was freezing up and waiting for the storm to pass.

“Ryuji, I still don’t fully understand what you mean by there being another place. Is it possible for you to show me what you’re talking about?” Her change of subject seemed to distract him well enough.

He tapped a finger against the table as he thought. “Honestly, that’s probably the best option at this point,” he said quietly. “Are you working tomorrow?”

“Only the late shift,” Misaki reminded.

“Then you should meet us in Shibuya station after school tomorrow.”

“Us?”

Ryuji’s expression softened. “It’s prolly safer to bring Akira with us, right?”

Misaki found herself smiling a little. Her son was well and truly smitten with that boy.

She just hoped things would turn out better for him than they had for her.


	14. Chapter 14

Akira turned around and almost dropped the book he’d just checked out when he saw Niijima was standing right behind him with her hands on her hips. He held it to his chest and pushed his glasses up his nose, more out of nervous habit than anything else.

“Won’t you join me in the student council office for a moment?” she asked, tone much sharper than her words.

Akira knew Ryuji was waiting for him downstairs, but he didn’t think he was really being given an option. “Uh, sure. But I really do need to get going soon.”

“This shouldn’t take too long,” she replied before turning away and leaving the library.

Akira followed her with a rising sense of trepidation, and couldn’t help but feel nervous when she shut the council room door behind him. Niijima walked over to the desk, but she didn’t sit down. She let out a long exhale before speaking.

“Is there a reason Akechi Goro has been incessantly asking me questions about you?”

Akira felt his eyes widen before he had a chance to even think about hiding his reaction. “Er, Akechi who?” he tried.

Niijima’s eyes instantly narrowed. Her hands tightened on her hips as she sighed through her nose. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t tell him anything.”

Akira tilted his head. “Why not?”

She frowned as she looked away. “Because this isn’t the first string of seemingly random questions he’s asked me about people in my school. Surely he doesn’t think the serial killer is a student.”

If only she knew how close she was. “You think I’m a killer?”

Niijima gestured impatiently. “Do you think I would be stupid enough to speak to you alone if I did? Still, I guess he has to cover all his bases. You are the only person in the school with a criminal record.”

Akira folded his arms. “Then shouldn’t you still feel worried?”

She shook her head. “Whatever situation you were in when that happened, I haven’t seen it replicated in a school environment yet. Besides, I know how to defend myself.”

Akira glanced down at his phone when it buzzed in his hand. Of course the message was from Ryuji.

_How long does it take to get a book?_

Akira was quick to reply. _Help me, I got bailed up by prez._

“You’ve got someone waiting for you?” Niijima asked. Her body language had relaxed a little, thankfully.

Akira nodded. “I really do need to get going.”

“Then… would you mind if we continue this conversation another time? Akechi-kun started saying some truly strange things when I kept withholding information.”

Akira glanced up with more interest this time. “What kind of things?”

“Well, I don’t know. It’s not like him to get angry in that way. He kept saying I’d regret it if I didn’t say anything, but I wasn’t sure if it was a personal threat or just an insinuation that it’d prevent him from solving his case. But if it was related to that, wouldn’t he just get my sister to ask me? She’s a prosecutor,” Niijima explained.

Akira knew something about Akechi’s mode of operation by now. He had a bad feeling. “What’s your sister’s name?” he asked as he opened the app that seemed to be the source of all this.

“Oh, Sae. You should be able to look her up online, she’s quite well known in those circles.”

“Niijima Sae?” He barely heard her sound of confirmation when he saw he had a positive hit.

The door scraped as it was flung open behind them, making both of them jump. But Akira relaxed when he turned to see it was only Ryuji. He strode into the room and came to stand between them.

“Whatever it is, it wasn’t this guy who did it!”

Niijima looked bemused. “I don’t know, doesn’t that just make him sound guiltier?”

Ryuji went to take another step forward, but Akira caught him by the elbow and pulled him back before he could. “Did Akechi interrogate _you_ about me yet?”

Ryuji glanced between them before nodding. “Yeah, but I just said you were a good lay and it shut him up pretty quick.”

Akira felt his brow twitch. “Remind me to trip you over next time we’re going down stairs.”

“Yes boss,” Ryuji mocked.

“I can see the two of you are busy. I won’t keep you,” Niijima commented, suddenly finding the desk behind her much more interesting than either of them.

Akira rubbed the back of his head. “Ok, see you later,” he said before she could gather herself enough to turn around and ask how Akechi and Ryuji knew each other.

* * *

As soon as they arrived at the station, Ryuji bounded over to his mother as though she had a homing beacon attached to her. By the time Akira caught up, they were already talking about the plan.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Akira asked quietly when there was a pause. “Once we’re in there we either succeed or face whatever consequence he’s going to mete out.”

“Don’t you think he already decided that for us? I’m done hesitating.” Ryuji turned to his mother, who looked partly amused but mostly hesitant. “Come on, we can get in from over here.”

Ryuji started walking toward the right end of the station and Akira brought up the rear of their small group. He was trying to keep an eye out for Akechi, or anyone who knew him, but it was hard to track individuals in a crowd this dense. Their best bet was probably just entering the metaverse as soon as possible.

Akira activated the app as soon as he saw they were close enough for it to work. He’d never seen anyone else enter the metaverse before, so it was strange seeing the people in front of him disappear. Morgana climbed out of his bag just as they crossed over, so he wouldn’t get stuck. Once they were in the darkness he jumped down and landed on two legs.

Ryuji’s mother was looking around wide-eyed, both of her hands hanging onto her handbag strap tightly. Morgana bounded forward, and she quickly stepped back when she noticed him.

“It’s about time you made up your mind,” Morgana said, ignoring her reaction in favour of catching up with Ryuji.

“Wasn’t exactly an easy decision!” Ryuji protested as he paused at the top of the first set of escalators. He glanced away and looked into the dark depths. “What floor are we going to?”

“I think we’ve got to go down quite a bit,” Morgana said. “Lucky for you, I am not limited to this cat-like form.”

“So you finally admit you’re a cat,” Ryuji teased.

Morgana made a sound suspiciously similar to a meow as he chased Ryuji down the escalator. Akira glanced at Misaki when he realised she still hadn’t moved very far. He approached her while being sure to stay out of her personal space.

“Are you all right?”

Misaki shook her head slowly before looking in his direction. “Ryuji very plainly explained what he’s been up to, but I guess he was right. The only way to believe all this is to see it for yourself.”

“I get it. I had to be tricked into coming here too,” he replied as he gestured toward the escalator. They headed down, only to hear Ryuji and Morgana’s bickering echo back up the tunnel. “You’ll be fine, just stay near us.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t get a chance to say anything else when Morgana turned into a bus in front of them. Akira blinked slowly, glad he hadn’t entirely lost the ability to feel surprise.

“I was going to ask what was with the outfits, but in light of that, it doesn’t really matter,” she said faintly.

“To be fair, I wasn’t expecting to see that today either.”

“So, one of you is going to have to drive,” Morgana interrupted, somehow.

Ryuji and Akira glanced at each other. Neither of them were old enough to go for their license, and it looked like Morgana had turned into a manual for whatever reason.

“I guess that’ll be me?” Misaki asked quietly. Akira nodded in agreement before climbing into one of the back seats. Ryuji slid in next to him.

He sat close, until their legs were brushing against one another. No one commented on the fact, and soon enough they were making their way through Mementos proper.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take Misaki very long to get over their bizarre circumstances. Even when they saw their first shadow, she was seemingly unperturbed.

“Is this one of the things that has been hurting you, Ryuji?”

“Oh, yeah, but don’t worry. Me and Akira can—” But he never got a chance to finish what he was going to say.

Misaki abruptly changed gears and floored it. The shadow didn’t even get a chance to turn around before they slammed into the back of it.

To Akira’s surprise, it disintegrated on impact. He doubted they’d get away with doing that to the stronger and faster ones further down, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t efficient.

Ryuji whooped and leaned over the seat, egging her on. Akira smiled and shook his head slightly. Morgana must be all right, because he hadn’t started complaining yet.

Akira still wasn’t sure how Ryuji figured he was the terrifying one.


	15. Chapter 15

Goro tapped his chin as he stared at the wall he’d started pinning things to in an attempt to clarify and use what he already knew. He’d lost his cool yesterday, but he knew he had to decide what he was going to do about Makoto carefully. She was much smarter than the others, and having her perspective could end up proving useful. But making her aware of his true nature would also be a huge risk.

Especially since it seemed she had some passing familiarity with his latest problem.

That part of the padded wall was concerningly sparse. All he’d managed to deduce was that he was a late transfer, because the name Kurusu hadn’t appeared anywhere in the list of names he’d had checked in the database right before the start of semester.

However, after striking up conversation with a couple of girls from Shujin on the train home, he’d discovered his given name was Akira. And also that he had a most interesting rumour connected to him. A quick search of the police database showed he was indeed on probation.

It seemed provoking Kurusu to hit him, or someone else, would be one way to quickly remove him from his path. But that almost felt too easy. He’d only stoop to that method if he ran out of other options.

Goro looked around quickly when he heard the bizarrely familiar sound of Caroline’s nightstick bashing into the walls of the corridor outside. Of course, they wouldn’t allow him to use this quiet corner unless he saw their master when required.

The work desk in front of him was identical to the one in his room, so he knew it had to be some kind of cognition. But he removed his overcoat and laid it over the chair before it all disappeared anyway. He knew his diagram on the wall would still be there when he needed it again.

“Come on, inmate!” Caroline yelled once she was outside his door.

“Isn’t he supposed to be a patient, Caroline?” Justine asked, quieter but no less firm.

“Does it matter?” she snapped.

Justine sighed and knocked against the thick metal door. “Are you ready?”

There was a slot in the door at an adult’s eye height that could be pushed back to check on him. But of course that was useless to them.

“Perhaps if you stood on Caroline’s shoulders,” he began lightly.

Caroline made an angry noise and shoved the door open. The smile that had begun to form on his face fell as once again he was forced to change. He still couldn’t see the logic in it, but the door opening always made the straight jacket appear and his shoes disappear. And, frustratingly, just one sock.

Caroline tapped her stick against the door frame as Justine wrote something down on her clipboard. Their off-white nursing uniforms should look like children’s costumes, but somehow they only made them look more threatening. When Goro passed them to move into the corridor, Caroline reached out to tug the strap on the straightjacket, making it tighter.

“You awful child,” he chided.

“Speak for yourself!”

He didn’t have a comeback for that. He knew his way to the treatment room now, so he simply continued walking in that direction. The dim, rusty corridors were disconcerting, but he’d been here enough times now to find them familiar. The girls were quick to pull ahead of him, and as they turned the corner he was left to appraise the heavy door alone.

He straightened his shoulders and tried not to falter in his step as they drew closer. The Personas taking up space in his head seemed to bubble to the surface as he stood in front of the open slot in the door, feet spaced at hip width and chin held high. He wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince that he was unbothered.

Caroline and Justine walked through the door as though it wasn’t there, and then across the dark pit in the ground as though a floor was there. They waited by Igor’s desk, which also looked to be suspended in space, to his eyes at least. He pressed a shoulder to the rough metal of the solid door, reminding himself that there was a barrier to prevent him falling back down there again.

“So, you still insist on killing rather than rehabilitating others,” the man commented as his assistants prepared the ‘treatment’ devices.

Goro narrowed his eyes. This conversation again? “What’s the difference?”

“Why destroy what you can control?” he replied, long fingers forming a loose fist in the air.

“Controlling others is exhausting,” he admitted, surprising himself with his honesty. At first he’d thought he’d be able to train a squad to help him infiltrate Shido’s palace, but now he was at risk of having too many balls in the air. He’d have to find a way to keep only what was useful.

Igor seemed to be satisfied with his answer, for now. “Then what is it you require today?”

It took a great mental effort to force all his Personas bar two into the treatment room, but they couldn’t disobey him when they were one and the same. He saw Caroline and Justine grimace at each other before getting on with the job.

He watched every electric shock, injection, cut, and organ removal with a fierce intensity. He would not allow anything unnecessary to take root within him. He was already capable, but he needed to get stronger if he was going to achieve his goal.

By the time the bloodbath was over, Loki and Robin Hood had grown noticeably stronger. It wasn’t enough yet, but it would have to be sufficient to keep his little group in line until he decided on what to do next.

The girls escorted him back to the isolation cell, looking far more serious than before. He glanced over his shoulder when they hesitated to close the door behind him.

“You’d better get your act together, inmate!” Caroline ignored Justine’s quiet whisper of ‘patient’ and continued, “If you keep this up, you’ll meet your ruin before you know it!”

“Change their hearts, don’t stop them from beating,” Justine added quietly.

Goro didn’t reply, simply turning away to walk back through the door to reality. What did it matter, as long as he had a chance to get at Shido before then?

He couldn’t control the full body shiver that wracked through him as he stepped back into Mementos. The consequences of his time spent there never really hit him until he returned to the real world. Or in this case, the shared cognitive world.

He took out his phone and considered going back for a moment to see if he’d missed anything, but his eyes were drawn to a notification he hadn’t seen before. When he opened it he was taken to the app, and within that the map of Mementos.

One of the levels he’d visited before had a red indicator over it, but he hadn’t input any new targets lately. Pressing the exclamation mark identified the target as Sakamoto Misaki.

Goro narrowed his eyes. He could guess who was responsible for this. But more concerningly, he hoped he wasn’t inadvertently sharing his target information with anyone else.

If this really was Ryuji’s doing, then was he aware of all this changing hearts business as well?

Goro leaped down the escalator and took off running. Something was telling him he didn’t have much time.

* * *

The moment they stepped into the space Misaki’s shadow was occupying, she shifted and huddled in on herself. Ryuji shot her a concerned look, and Akira reflected that it might have been a better idea to have her wait outside. But then she might be found by an unfriendly shadow, anyway.

It took him a moment to identify her shadow among the slow moving ribbons of darkness. It was lying on the ground in the foetal position. The four of them approached cautiously, but it didn’t look like it was paying any attention to them.

They stopped a few metres away, and Ryuji didn’t seem to know whether he should get into a fighting stance or not. It shuddered and curled up tighter for a moment. Morgana made a sound of distress.

“She’s already at half strength,” he urgently whispered.

Ryuji looked back at his real mother—or were they both real?—who looked away and wrapped her arms around herself more tightly. He seemed to make his decision, and approached the shadow.

“Mum?” he asked as he knelt down next to her.

“Ryuji? What are you doing here?” she asked weakly.

“Could ask you the same thing,” he muttered as he looked up at the sluggish streams of darkness that were circling above his head now. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m a terrible person,” she said. “I’m sorry. I don’t deserve to call myself your mother.”

Ryuji bit his lip and looked away. Akira stayed still, trying not to spook her into attacking them or something. Her own child was probably the most capable of getting to the bottom of this.

“I want to tell you to stop being ridiculous, but obviously that ain’t helping,” he said quietly before glancing back at Misaki. She’d moved away to lean against the tunnel wall, gripping her handbag close to her, almost like a shield. His eyes slid back to her shadow. “So, why do you feel like that? Remember, you’ve gotta state the obvious for me.”

“I can barely keep a roof over our heads. Sometimes I only see you a few times a week. You’re only sixteen, and yet most of the time you’re left to fend for yourself. I don’t expect you to worry about your nutrition on top of all that, but you don’t exactly get three square meals every day. I shouldn’t even call myself a mother.”

“Just whose definition are you going off?” he demanded hotly, but he seemed to be making an effort to keep his voice down. He pushed his mask off his face and she finally looked up at him properly. “S’not your fault no one left room for families like ours. We’re supposed to be a team, aren’t we? We’re managing ok.”

The real Misaki seemed to be more affected by his words than her shadow, who only looked up at the ceiling. “Maybe we’d at least look normal on the outside if your father hadn’t left.”

“You’re still going on about that asshole!?” Ryuji demanded. The darkness streaming around them pulsed sharply. Akira didn’t need Morgana to tell him that was a sign of danger. “I’d rather be out on the street than ever have to see his fucking face again! Aren’t you glad he doesn’t hit you anymore?”

The silence was as thick as the writhing streams of darkness. The shadow glanced between Ryuji and the ceiling before answering. “Maybe I deserved it.”

Ryuji physically fell back from his squatting position and landed on his butt. “ _W-what_!?”

The shadow frowned and looked over at him. Finally she seemed to get some of her strength back and turned to get up on her hands and knees. Ryuji turned his back to her, which Akira didn’t necessarily think was wise at that moment.

“I’m gonna kill that fucking asshole. He must be fucked up enough to have a shadow down here, right?” Ryuji said as he got to his feet. Before Akira could try to remind him to stay focused, Ryuji’s eyes widened and he paled.

Akira turned on the spot to find Akechi of all people was standing in the entrance to the tunnel. More concerningly, his gun was trained on Misaki.

“Ohhh, so that’s who I should have offered to kill for you,” Akechi said sarcastically. “Too late now, I suppose.”

“You!” Ryuji spluttered, seemingly not sure whether he should be shocked or angry.

“But you did manage to surprise me a little,” Akechi said lightly. “I’d dismissed the possibility of Kurusu being like us as too farfetched. Oh well, it’s not like anyone would believe him if he tried to tell them about the metaverse.” His eyes returned to Misaki. “Nor how either of you died.”

Akechi squeezed the trigger, but just before the shot went off, Morgana leaped out of his hiding spot and onto Akechi’s back. He dug his claws in and reefed them up his sides, making Akechi instinctively bring his arms in.

Misaki’s knees hit the ground, but the mark left by the laser was burning above her and to one side. Fortunately Akechi still seemed to be more than distracted by Morgana. Ryuji ran over to her as he shoved his mask back into place.

Finally Akechi got hold of Morgana and ditched him at the floor. He followed up with a few shots, but unlike Misaki, Morgana had some level of protection from his Persona. Akira drew his pistol and let off a few shots of his own.

It was enough to make Akechi stop his assault for a moment. Akira ran up to Morgana as he got back to his feet. “Lucky one of us can think under stress,” Morgana grumbled.

“You’re all going to regret this,” Akechi hissed as he violently ripped his mask off. Flecks of blood flew everywhere before his Persona had a chance to heal him over.

His stare scared Akira on some instinctive level, but he tried to remain focused on selecting a Persona. Somehow Ryuji seemed to realise what he was doing.

“Defend against curse and bless!” he yelled quickly.

Akechi appeared to set his sights on Ryuji instead.

But that wasn’t something Akira could allow.


	16. Chapter 16

Misaki still didn’t really get the whole Persona thing, even after seeing the boys in action on their way down here. But it wasn’t hard to see they were struggling against the powerful blows and abilities that the new arrival was dishing out.

Of course she didn’t really understand what any of them were talking about, either. She supposed she was a bit of an uninvited guest.

But really, the only thing she needed to know right now was that this person had been threatening and hurting her son for over a month. And the only reason it had worked was that she had no way of defending herself.

Misaki stayed low to the ground as she made her way over to her shadow, hoping to avoid any stray shots. There wasn’t much in the way of cover to protect her over here, but she’d just have to hope that they could keep him distracted enough that it wouldn’t matter.

She swallowed as she approached the part of herself that seemed to have no compunctions with voicing her most private feelings. Even things that she hadn’t even known how to put into words herself.

“Hey, you’re my shadow, aren’t you?” she demanded, trying to be braver than she felt.

The shadow’s eyes flickered to her, curiosity hiding in their otherwise despondent depths. The shadow didn’t say anything, but she interpreted her expression to mean ‘so what’.

“Don’t you turn into some kind of monster thing? Can’t you do anything to protect Ryuji?”

She looked down and shook her head. “What can someone like me do? I can’t even look after him properly under normal circumstances.”

Misaki jumped and looked back when she heard Ryuji cry out. He’d fallen to the floor and was clutching his leg while his attacker put his gun away and pulled out his sword.

The cat-like creature bounded over to her son even as he emptied his shotgun of shells. It didn’t quite seem to be having the effect on his assailant that he was hoping for. Akira did his best to get between them and the other boy, but he was clearly faltering as well.

“Who cares? I have to do something now!” This wasn’t about providing for her child, it was about making sure they all survived to see another day. “You can go back to complaining when we’re back home safe!”

She grabbed her shadow’s shoulders and shook her slightly. She only gave her a very small smile in return. “Me? I am you,” she reminded before fading into a stream of light.

Misaki looked down at her hands when there was no longer anything there for them to touch. She didn’t feel any different…

 _So, you’re finally focusing on what you can do instead of lamenting over what was never a possibility._ Misaki brought her hands to her head as the rough female voice echoed through her mind. _Will you keep that up outside of battle?_

“If… if that’s what Ryuji needs.”

A small laugh. _It’s what you need too, dear. Remember the promise you made? Stick to it this time._

Misaki was trembling when she slowly stood up. Her vision had narrowed to a small, rectangular window, and she could feel something heavy and metallic covering her face. There was a burn, an itch, to tear it away. But she had to get over there and provide a moment of distraction. Her grip tightened around the item in her hand, and her breath caught in her throat at the familiar feeling of a bokken.

She walked at as steady a pace as she could manage when she felt like a volcano about to erupt. Her feet moved along the old railway tracks that seemed to be spread everywhere at random down here.

The bokken scraped along one of the metal tracks, making a hissing sound. She raised it a little and let it smack back down. She’d been expecting a dull thud, but instead a wobbly metallic note rang out.

Their assailant retreated a little so he could pause in his actions and appraise her. The noise she’d made seemed to have bothered him, though she didn’t care why in that moment. She came to a halt, and knew it wasn’t just her heavy clothes that were making her sweat. Something was crawling up from inside her, demanding to be let out.

And really, it was impossible to deny it.

* * *

Akira knew that if things went on like this, he wasn’t going to last much longer. Most of his Personas were weak against one or the other of Akechi’s favoured attacks, and none of them were strong against both. He supposed he’d never really prepared for something like this. He just picked up and held onto whichever ones seemed interesting or unique at the time.

Ryuji was on the ground still, trying to gather himself up after the shock of pain to an old wound. Morgana was also clearly running out of energy from having to heal the two of them so much. So it was a surprise when Akechi suddenly backed off for a moment.

He heard the ring of metal and looked around only to see who had to be Misaki. It seemed she’d solved their problem by awakening her Persona.

The roughly hewn rectangle of metal that made up her mask covered her entire face, but the rest of her clothes didn’t match it at all. She looked like she belonged in a particularly gaudy girl gang. She had the typical long navy pleated skirt, as well as a white midriff baring top. But over the top of all of that she wore a shockingly bright pink leather overcoat. It had something painted on the back and up each sleeve, but he didn’t have time to read it, even though he’d suffered through putting in contacts for today’s trip.

In any case, he could see where Ryuji got his fashion sense from now. Among other things.

“I’ve heard Ryuji complain about rotten adults before,” Misaki said almost conversationally. “So come on, out with it. Which rotten adult created you?” She tapped the bokken against her shoulder, clearly waiting for an answer.

Akechi narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you referring to the asshole who pretends I don’t exist, or the one who killed herself after deeming herself unfit to provide for me?”

Misaki tilted her head. “Probably the former, then.” She paused and flicked her jacket aside so she could put a hand on her hip. “Are you going to insist on taking my son away?”

“It’s not like I planned for you to be separated for long,” he spat as he raised his gun and fired. The laser burnt against her mask, but she didn’t even flinch.

“I see,” she said quietly as she slowly reached up to grab the bottom of her mask. She tore it away sharply and blue flames engulfed her. “Jessie!”

“All right, come on,” Ryuji said quietly as he squeezed Akira’s arm. His expression was grim but determined. “Time for round two, right?”

Akira nodded and helped him get back to his feet. Morgana leaned against his calf, but looked determined too.

A seemingly larger than life horse galloped past them with a plain looking woman in a fancy dress, which had probably been popular last century, dashing past them. Her hair streamed behind her as she focused on her foe intensely. Akechi attempted to dodge out of her path, but she unexpectedly came to a halt and turned her horse as though she’d known he was going to try it.

The horse suddenly kicked out backward, cracking Akechi in the head with a hoof.

“Fuck!” he swore viciously as he clutched at his head and staggered away. If they were in the real world, undoubtedly he’d be down for the count.

“Now!” Akira commanded, but the other two were already onto it.

Ryuji bound forward and smacked him between the eyes with his pipe. Morgana tried to slice at his middle, but Akechi managed to kick him away. He switched to letting off a few shots with his slingshot instead. Akira moved in and planted his foot in Akechi’s gut, watching the air leave him as he fell to the ground.

“All right!” Ryuji cheered, patting him on the back.

Akira gave him half a smile, but his eyes didn’t leave their opponent as he drew his gun once more. The other two spread out and pointed their respective projectile weapons at him too. Misaki joined them a moment later, but simply pointed her bokken at him.

“Now stop being fucking crazy for five seconds,” Ryuji began, but Akechi just laughed. The fact he clearly had some kind of mild concussion and couldn’t exactly see properly really wasn’t helping.

“You think that’s all there is?” he mocked as some kind of darkness started to gather around him this time. “I haven’t even gotten started.”

“I don’t think we want to see whatever he’s got left!” Morgana piped up, sounding panicked. “Akira, do something!”

Akira’s mind raced at the demand. He knew no matter what kind of attack they pulled next, it wouldn’t be enough to knock Akechi flat. If anything, it would probably just make him angrier.

He took hold of the first idea he came up with since time wasn’t on his side.

“Succubus! Marin Karin!”

Akira held his breath, but after a moment of looking unsteady, Akechi keeled over with a groan. His Persona voiced his thoughts. “Put your weapons down!”

Akechi’s hands opened, and his gun and sword slid from each. Ryuji hesitantly ducked forward to take his sword away, then Morgana did the same thing with his gun when it seemed he wasn’t going to react.

“Shit, I can’t believe that worked,” Ryuji commented quietly, as though afraid he’d snap Akechi out of it if he spoke too loudly. “What should we do with him?”

“He’ll probably wake up before we get back to the entrance,” Akira acknowledged.

Ryuji gave him a disbelieving look. “Seriously dude? Even after all that?” Akira tilted his head at him. “We could just leave him somewhere a shadow would find him, you know. Would at least stop him from killing anyone else.”

Akira couldn’t deny that. “I don’t… think I could do that. Not on purpose,” he admitted quietly. “Let’s just leave him in here while we drive back to the real world. It’ll be harder for him to get revenge on us there.”

The others nodded slowly and put their weapons away. Morgana tossed Akechi’s gun away before turning back into the bus. Akira looked over his shoulder before climbing in. Akechi had returned to his hands and knees, but hadn’t managed to move any further yet. Akira wondered if he’d remember them talking about him.

“If we’re going to keep doing that, I think we’re going to need a bigger team,” Akira reflected quietly.

“Probably,” Ryuji agreed as he gave his knee a light squeeze. Akira laid his hand over Ryuji’s for a moment. “But damn Mum, that was awesome!”

Misaki laughed as she pushed her metal mask up off her face. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she admitted.

Ryuji settled back into his seat with a smile. They went up a few more floors before he spoke again. “But seriously dude, why do you have a hot chick as a Persona? Aren’t they still supposed to be you?”

Akira fought not to roll his eyes. Instead he pouted and patted his chest. “Do I not satisfy you the way I am, Ryuji?” He wasn’t so blind as to miss the way he ogled women sometimes.

Ryuji spluttered and shoved him into the door. “That’s not—! What the hell!?”

Morgana honked his horn loudly in protest. “Stop that, or you can get out and walk!”

“What he said,” Misaki agreed.

“Yes Ryuji, you shouldn’t say such inappropriate things in front of your own mother.”

“That ain’t even what I was talkin’ about!” Ryuji protested loudly. “ _You_ watch _your_ mouth!”

Akira just smirked as he mentally changed his Persona to something that had less lewd thoughts. In the real world they all seemed to meld into parts of his personality, but here it really mattered which one he had with him.

Though if Ryuji really did think like Succubus all the time, he wasn’t sure how he managed to function. Akira squeezed his hand, and Ryuji stopped pouting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok originally I was going to make Misaki’s Persona Ned Kelly because helmet, but honestly he’d probably be much better as one of Akira’s. Parts of Jessie Hickman’s story seemed relevant though, so I stuck with the bushranger theme in the end.


	17. Chapter 17

Ryuji’s head hurt. Akira was already worried about end of semester exams, and as promised, he was actually making Ryuji review their classwork on a regular basis this time. It wasn’t like he’d ended up staying out that late, since he definitely wanted to stay in Sojiro’s good books, but they’d covered a lot in only a few hours.

Ryuji unlocked the apartment door and started with surprise when he was blasted by music and women laughing loudly. He rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but smile a little. Apparently his mum had been inspired to make contact with a few of her old friends since they’d gone to Mementos. It looked like the party had moved back to the apartment.

He closed the door behind him and checked to make sure it was locked before taking his shoes off. By the time he looked up, all the ladies gathered around the small dining table were staring at him.

“Welcome back Ryu-chan!” his mother said a little too loudly, followed by a chorus of ‘welcome’ and ‘nice to meet you’.

Ryuji tried to smile in return, but couldn’t help but cringe a little at the childish nickname. He could see the sake bottles on the table, but as long as she was drinking with other people, it was probably ok.

“I thought you’d stay at Akira-kun’s since it’s Saturday.”

“Eh, his guardian said I can’t anymore,” he said quietly, understanding her curiosity, but not really wanting to explain why in front of everyone else. “I’ll probably go back tomorrow though.”

His mum frowned. “I’ll tell him he doesn’t have to worry about that. You’re a terrible liar, after all,” she said as though that was some kind of reassurance. “Hold on, I have his number for emergencies.”

“Mum! It’s fine!” Ryuji insisted as he circled around behind her and leaned down to snatch her phone out of her hand.

“Hey!” she protested. “I’m trying to help you.”

“You can do it later,” he muttered, embarrassed.

He looked around at the other four women at the table. They all had bright makeup or hair, and a couple of them were in bright leather jackets and jeans. He guessed he knew where some of the custom bikes he’d seen on the street outside had come from now.

Ryuji wondered how much of a delinquent his mother had really been back then. She usually avoided talking about her own high school days, probably because she’d spent more time out of class than in. But he’d seen a few photos of her in customised school uniforms, and he knew the old bokken that was still lying around the house somewhere had never been used for martial arts.

His mum awkwardly patted his leg. “Ok, ok. Don’t you worry. I’ll send these noisy buggers home in an hour or so. There’s still some leftovers from yesterday in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

“Ok,” he replied as he gave her phone back and moved over to the fridge. He and Akira had eaten on the way home, so it’d been a while.

The music in the background changed to something with power vocals, and the ladies turned away to start talking to each other again. “No mistaking whose he is,” he heard one of them comment. “Poor kid.”

He’d prefer to warm everything up, but he didn’t really want to stand around waiting for the microwave if that was going to be their topic of conversation. He took the old takeaway container and a pair of chopsticks straight to his room.

Ryuji flopped down on his futon and tried to eat, but his thoughts kept going round in circles. No matter what he did, it always seemed to come back down to that asshole. And worst of all, the similarities between them.

Ryuji’s eyes drifted to his phone as he chewed on the cold food. Before he knew it, he’d picked it up and dialled Akira. He had no idea what he was going to say, but he didn’t have time to worry about it too much when Akira picked up after only a few rings.

“Hey Ryuji, what’s up?”

“Hey, I made it home. Mum still has her friends over, though.”

“Oh, I was wondering what all the noise was,” Akira teased, and immediately Ryuji started to feel a little better.

“Don’t think this means I won’t be there to kick your ass out of bed at the crack of dawn,” Ryuji added, making him laugh a little. “I still have a headache.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t exercise your brain enough,” Akira mocked.

Ryuji huffed and rolled his eyes. Akira probably already had a good idea of his reaction would have been even if he couldn’t see it, so he didn’t bother elaborating on it. “So, um, guess I’ll see you then?”

Akira was silent for a moment. “Is that all you wanted to say?”

It really was kind of annoying how simultaneously perceptive and nosy his boyfriend was, but if it hadn’t been for that, they probably wouldn’t be where they were now. “Thanks. For Mum.”

“Just tell me what’s wrong next time,” Akira teased gently. “But you’re definitely welcome. I’m glad things are starting to return to normal.”

They certainly weren’t what they had once been. But now his scholarship and reputation seemed a little less important. Things could sure be a lot worse.

“Well, we’re not out of the fire yet. There’s still a serial killer out there who wants us dead.” Ryuji paused and Akira hummed with agreement. “Still, I’m glad… the two of us are…”

Akira didn’t make him finish his sentence. Thankfully. “Me too, Ryuji.”

“Um, night then.”

“Good night,” Akira replied softly. Ryuji smiled.

* * *

Akira thought he was going to die, and all Ryuji was doing about it was standing over him and laughing about something related to his lack of lung capacity. He groaned in protest when Ryuji tried to pull him up from his perfectly comfortable spot lying face down on the park grass.

“Come on, man! I’ve still gotta get my revenge on you for yesterday,” he said between laughs.

“Ryuji, I’m already dead,” Akira complained flatly.

Ryuji rolled his eyes but didn’t let go of his hand. “Don’t say shit like that, it ain’t exactly hyperbole for us, is it?”

Akira hummed in acknowledgement. “I didn’t know you knew any words that big,” he teased. For some reason it seemed to particularly annoy Ryuji.

“Is that how I’m s’posed to impress you now? Ya never struck me as the kinda guy who likes talking about aesthetics or whatever the shit, but if that’s the kind of highbrow conversation you’re expecting then…”

“This sounds like a conversation I would enjoy,” a familiar deep voice said from the path the two of them were meant to be running on. Inokashira always seemed to be packed on a Sunday.

Akira finally got back to his knees so he could look up properly. “Hello, Yusuke-kun,” he greeted.

“Yo,” Ryuji added as his hands went to his hips. He regarded Yusuke with some level of suspicion, which wasn’t entirely surprising given the circumstances they had met under.

He nodded toward both of them. “I don’t believe I got either of your names, on either occasion,” he added, finally looking like he knew he was out of place for once in his life.

“Akira, and this is Ryuji. Did you end up making a good painting with Ann-san?”

Akira didn’t miss the pain in Yusuke’s eyes as he looked away. He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “I haven’t been able to make anything lately. I’m afraid I may have just bored and disappointed her.” He took his sketchbook out from under his arm and flicked back a few pages.

Akira stood up properly so he could take a look at the pages. Yusuke slowly flicked through three different pencil drawings, all of which were variations of Ann looking away with something heavy on her mind. He was sure he knew at least part of what she was thinking about.

“See, she just looks unhappy to be there,” Yusuke said. “I know Sensei doesn’t want a painting like this.”

Ryuji raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s not it, man. She has a lot on her mind, of course that’s what’s gonna fill her head up while she’s just sitting there waiting for you to be done. And anyway, who cares what your sensei wants? It’s your work, ain’t it?”

Yusuke sighed, and suddenly something in his expression reflected that of his model’s. “It’s not that simple. There are already two more exhibitions planned for this year, and I…”

Akira glanced at Ryuji. They both knew his sensei had some kind of palace, and that probably didn’t mean anything good for him.

“Is Madarame-sensei really that stringent? Surely as long as you’re developing and building out your portfolio, he has to be happy with that,” Akira commented lightly.

“My portfolio,” Yusuke repeated quietly. His expression twisted for a moment, but then he turned away from them to look toward the tree line.

“Oh wait, are you saying you submit things to his exhibitions as well? Already?” Akira asked, trying to sound interested in the art rather than his backstory. He took out his phone and searched for the exhibition site, which likely had a gallery of photos of the pieces that had been displayed. “I didn’t get a chance to go in person, but which one of these are yours? I didn’t see your name…”

Yusuke took a step back, and Akira knew he was onto something. “I… I must go now.”

Ryuji grabbed his arm before he could get too far and pulled him closer instead. “Dude, just tell us how he’s abusing you already. Not judging, but I think we can help you.”

“What?” Yusuke demanded thunderously. “How dare you say such things about the man who took me in when I had nothing!”

Akira massaged his forehead. Ryuji was far too blunt. But maybe when it came to someone like Yusuke, it was exactly what he needed.

“I am being serious though, Yusuke-kun. It’d be nice to see your portfolio. It’s where all an artist’s best work goes, right? So you can prove your abilities to prospective employers after high school?” So he could secure his independence, and his future.

Yusuke looked between them in both anger and confusion. “My best work is… Not that you’d believe me, but my best work is not being displayed under my name,” he snapped.

It seemed part of him did want to talk about it after all. Maybe it was part of his apparent art block.

“We believe you, man,” Ryuji said seriously, finally letting Yusuke go. “I get the feeling you’re not talking about a pen name, though.”

Yusuke looked away, folding his arms across his sketchbook so it’d act as something like a shield between them. He shook his head and brought a hand to his chest.

“I… well, it doesn’t really matter in the end. I just feel like it isn’t fair.” Even though Akira was no closer to piecing together what he meant, Yusuke looked relieved to have said as much. “Anyway, I do actually need to go.”

“Will you give us your number so we don’t have to rely on another serendipitous meeting cropping up?” Akira asked dryly.

Yusuke seemed to be amused. “They say things like this come in threes, and this is the third time. I suppose it’s only fair,” he agreed.

Once they were done, they waved him off. Ryuji turned to look back at Akira. “Do you really think he has a Persona?”

Akira shrugged. “Maybe everyone does, in the right circumstances.”

Ryuji hummed thoughtfully. “Do you think that applies to enjoying running, too?”

Akira narrowed his eyes at Ryuji, who only gave him a shit-eating grin. “I’ll run as far as I need to get out of a collapsing palace, and not a step further.”

Ryuji only laughed before mercilessly dragging him along for another lap around the park.


	18. Chapter 18

Akira was surprised to find breakfast ready and waiting for him. Even if it was curry, yet again, it was a relief to not have to worry about his own meals all the time. “Thanks,” he said before shovelling the food down.

Sojiro made a sound of amusement as he continued preparing the food he hoped he was going to be able to sell along with his coffee today. Akira had gathered Sojiro wasn’t particularly keen on talking about his… daughter? But he had to ask.

“Hey, how has Futaba been lately?”

Sojiro glanced over his shoulder with a startled expression. “No different from usual,” he replied cautiously. “But then, it isn’t exactly easy to read her when she never comes out of her room. Why?”

“I think I might have upset her,” Akira admitted. “She told me what happened with her mother, and I just,” he began to explain, but he never got a chance to finish.

“She told you _what_?”

“Well, it turns out we have a mutual acquaintance who had something similar happen to his. With the um, suicide and all.”

Sojiro slammed his hands on the benchtop in front of him. “Wakaba did _not_ commit suicide!”

Akira startled, not having expected him to disagree so vehemently. “Maybe… you should tell her that?” he suggested weakly. He was feeling out of his depth now.

The bell over the door tinkling interrupted them. Sojiro tried to smooth his expression as a woman in a suit entered the café. But she was being closely followed by the person Akira wanted to see least right now.

Fortunately Akechi seemed to be just as horrified to see him. Akira briefly considered running to throw an apron on and pretending he just worked here part time, but it wouldn’t make any sense for him to have an opening shift on a school day.

“Niijima-san,” Sojiro greeted with a stiff nod. Akira’s eyes flew to the woman in shock. Was this Makoto’s sister, then?

“Good morning,” she said sharply, but not unkindly. Her eyes landed on Akira and he tried to adopt a poker face. “Is this the kid you said you were going to take in?”

“Yeah,” Sojiro replied before Akira could even consider denying it. The situation was spiralling out of his control, and he didn’t know what to do to make it stop.

“And which school do you go to?” Niijima asked as she sat down, leaving an empty seat between them. Akechi sat on her other side, in front of the small collection of books Akira had been amassing since he’d moved.

“I, uh, the same one as your younger sister,” Akira tried to focus on replying as he watched Akechi glance over the spines of his books.

“Oh? You know Makoto? Small world!”

Sojiro finished setting up his coffee making apparatus and moved to stand in front of his actual customers. Akira took the chance to scoff down the rest of his breakfast.

“I assume you want your usual, Niijima-san. What about your apprentice?”

Akechi laughed and flicked one of his hands, slipping into his TV persona with practiced ease. But to Akira’s eyes he still seemed stiff, and his voice had a slight edge to it. “As black as it comes, please. I’m going to need it after being dragged to a scene at four in the morning.” He glanced at Akira. “But I should head to school soon, if I don’t want to miss my first class again. Can I have it takeaway?”

“Sure,” Sojiro replied with a nod. Niijima paid for their order and Akechi smiled at her gratefully.

Akira started when Morgana suddenly jumped into his lap. He knew Sojiro and Niijima would only hear a yowling sound, but he couldn’t help showing his shock when Morgana swore loudly.

“Get out of here, you bastard!”

“Morgana, please. Behave yourself,” Akira said as he placed a hand on the cat’s head.

Akechi’s eyes remained wide as Morgana made himself at home inside Akira’s bag and glared at him with flattened ears. Despite all the weird and wonderful things he’d undoubtedly seen in the metaverse, it seemed a cat talking in the real world was still enough to surprise him.

“Anyway, I should get going,” Akira said quickly as he started getting to his feet. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Sakura-san, I actually need to ask you about a Sakura Futaba,” Niijima began as soon as Sojiro put their coffees down in front of them.

Akira hesitated when Sojiro looked bewildered. “What is it with that girl today?” he muttered as he glanced at Akira, as if he’d orchestrated the whole thing.

Akira noticed Akechi’s smug expression, and couldn’t help but worry he’d been the one to instigate this chat. He couldn’t know she was the hacker he’d hired. He’d probably just found out about Akira’s living situation and was trying to psyche him out.

Right?

“I’ve really got to run,” Akira said quickly as he made a beeline for the door. Somehow he doubted sticking around was going to make clearer what Akechi had told Niijima to make her start this line of questioning. Or maybe he’d stuck to a version of the truth to help the lies come easier.

“Oh! I must as well,” Akechi said suddenly, surprising both Niijima and Sojiro as he abruptly followed him outside.

Was he that confident Niijima would report everything back to him accurately and completely, or was gaining that kind of information really not the point of him coming here? And now he was fully aware of exactly where Akira lived. And probably even where he slept at night.

Fuck.

Akira sped up, not wanting to get stuck with Akechi alone anywhere for even a moment. But thankfully it wasn’t so early that there weren’t plenty of elderly people out and about. To his disappointment, Akechi still managed to fall into step beside him.

“Is she your foster sister? You should probably tell her that cryptocurrency wallet numbers can be matched to the bank accounts they deposit most of their money into.”

Akira froze mid-step. The smirk Akechi gave him was far too self-satisfied.

“Leave her out of this. She’s just a kid.” Actually, Akechi probably knew more about her than he did. But that wasn’t the point.

“She got herself involved in all of this long before you did. Maybe things would have turned out better if you had have just kept your head down.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Still, I wonder why she has a palace. She seems to be more into causing mischief than benefiting from crime. Either way, it’s useful to me.”

Akira wanted very much to smack Akechi in his smug face, but he knew that would be the opposite of helpful right now. He’d have to check Akechi’s claims for himself when he had a moment to breathe, but for now he should probably assume he was telling the truth.

“Don’t you think your MO is getting a bit stale?” Akira retorted quietly.

“Yeah! We’ll just change her heart!” Morgana added as he climbed up to lean on Akira’s shoulder.

Akechi’s eyes narrowed, and all at once he was hostile again. For some reason, Morgana’s statement had bothered him. “What does that even mean?”

“It means we’ll get rid of her palace, and your leverage, without harming her. We won’t let you boss us around!” Morgana insisted.

Akechi shook his head. “I don’t need either of you idiots getting in my way. As long as you and Sakamoto keep your mouths shut, the fact that she spends so much time alone in her room shouldn’t have to bother you any.” Akechi finished off his coffee before looking in the direction of the station. “Nor the fact that Sakamoto’s mother gets at least one shift a week where she closes up alone in the dead of night.”

Akira’s hands clenched in his pockets. As expected, their problems were far from resolved. “Seriously? Have you ever killed anyone directly, in real life, before?”

Akechi simply gave him his fake smile. If he had a firearms license, then it probably wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume he had some kind of access to a gun. Akira glanced down at the ridiculous briefcase he carried around everywhere, wondering.

But the fact he wasn’t denying he’d done something like that said a lot on its own. Akira pressed his thumb against his knuckle as the fear and anger rose within him. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been warned. Ryuji had tried, extensively. But it was far too late to back down now.

“So, what were you investigating this morning? One of your own crimes?” Akira asked quietly. “Have you ever ‘solved’ anything unrelated to your own deranged activities?”

Akechi scowled at him, the wound to his pride clearly worse than anything Akira had managed to inflict on him in the metaverse. He looked away and closed his eyes, seemingly in an attempt to make himself calm down.

“It pays the bills, at least. You have no idea how happy I was when I turned eighteen.”

“When you left the foster system?”

Rather than answer him, Akechi turned away fully and hurried in the direction of the train station. It seemed it was Akira’s turn to try and chase him down.

“How do you know about that?” Akechi demanded through clenched teeth.

“I have information on every legal guardian and institution you’ve ever stayed with, but I still don’t understand why you do what you do.” Granted, their official documents probably weren’t an accurate reflection of how they treated the children they fostered. But still…

Akechi scanned through the station gates ahead of him, but he had to make his changeover in Shibuya as well, so Akira wasn’t going to let him escape that easily. “Someone like you couldn’t,” Akechi replied with a sneer that disappeared as quickly as it came.

They both squeezed onto the same train and Akira was made a little paranoid by their proximity. But it seemed they were in too public a place for Akechi to do anything that might tarnish his spotless reputation now.

“I’m thinking of starting up a business where I help people deal with their parent issues,” Akira began dryly. “So why don’t you stop faking it and actually say what’s on your mind for once?”

“Don’t you dare trivialise this,” Akechi hissed in response.

“Then stop trivialising other people’s lives,” Akira replied just as sharply. “Seems like the world has been shitty to you so far, but there’s more to it than this.”

Akechi remained silent as he squeezed the now empty coffee cup in his hand. He looked down, but Akira continued staring at him expectantly.

As the train slowed, Akechi flinched as someone fell into his back. He hurriedly tried to school his expression once again. “S-sorry,” the girl apologised quietly.

It seemed to take a lot of effort for him to glance over his shoulder and smile at her pleasantly. “Oh, do be careful. Do you have enough room to get out?”

“Y-yes, thank you. Oh, you’re…” The girl turned bright red before running off the train.

Akechi turned toward Akira so he could roll his eyes without being seen by anyone else. He got the odd sensation he’d just been let in on some kind of secret.

“Just tell her to stop being such a klutz.”

Akechi raised a brow. “You want me to go around bullying middle schoolers now?”

“At this point? It’d be an improvement.”

“If I was going to ruin my reputation, I’d do it with something more worthwhile. Like pushing you in front of a train.”

“I’m flattered,” Akira mocked, though he knew it’d be foolish to treat it as an empty threat.

“You should be,” Akechi retorted as he moved closer to the doors, getting ready for when they’d open again. This time Akira didn’t have a hope of staying near him as the crowd flooded out onto the platform between them.

Akira exhaled and followed the now familiar path to his platform. He knew he’d probably get a chance to briefly catch up with Ryuji before school, but he had no idea how to explain the encounter he’d just had. Nor how worried they should be about what was coming next.

It was probably about time he started knocking palaces off his growing to do list.


	19. Chapter 19

Akira rang the doorbell before looking at Ryuji, who returned his gaze nervously as he adjusted his hold on his school bag. Akira had been summoned here by Futaba once again, and he’d decided to bring Ryuji and Morgana along, just in case.

After a moment Akira received a text saying the gate and door were unlocked. He nodded at Ryuji before heading inside. Morgana scampered in ahead of them, triggering a gasp.

“You didn’t tell me you had a kitty!” Futaba said from somewhere further down the hallway. Morgana yowled and Akira sped up a little.

“Hey, be gentle,” he said hurriedly as he turned the corner to find her sitting near the top of the stairs. Her bright orange hair stood out even in the dim corridor. Morgana had been dragged into her lap and was looking uncomfortable, but generally all right.

Futaba startled slightly when Ryuji followed Akira around the corner. “Who’s that?” she demanded, looking like she was about to bolt.

“My boyfriend,” Akira said, knowing it would be the easiest and briefest way to explain after giving her that request. It felt nice to be able to say it honestly this time, though.

“Oh, right. Hey, you sure look at a lot of internet titties for someone who’s dating a dude,” Futaba replied flatly as she vigorously rubbed Morgana behind the ear, making the hair on his back rise.

Akira grabbed Ryuji’s arm before he could turn around and flee the house. His face was redder than he’d ever seen it. “I thought you said she was a hacker, not a stalker!”

“I can do both,” Futaba said like it was something to brag about. “Do you know how much money I could make selling certain information to Akechi Goro fan clubs? But I have some standards.” She straightened her glasses and Morgana took the opportunity to flee. “Um, actually, that’s what I wanted to talk about,” she added as she ducked her head and pressed her knees together.

“Akechi?”

She nodded. “I overheard your conversation with him this morning. Is he using the information I got for him to kill people?”

Akira didn’t get a chance to question the fact she was still tapping one or both of their phones because Ryuji jumped in first. “So it’s your fault he found out about my mum? And then I dragged Ann into it,” he muttered as he scrubbed a hand over his face.

“I’m sorry,” Futaba said quietly as she wrapped her arms around her knees. “I didn’t know. But I should have guessed he was up to something super dodgy.”

Akira climbed up a couple of stairs, but he didn’t want to push his luck by getting too close. “It’s ok,” he said quietly. “You’ve just got to be more careful who you share your skills with from now on. And what you use them for.”

Ryuji scratched the back of his head, but stayed where he was. “Yeah, I guess you don’t really go around assuming other people are killers.” Futaba glanced up at him, looking a little relieved. Akira guessed she wouldn’t have been able to handle him being mad at her over it. “But he’s still making my friends do bad things, so it’d be good if you can keep helping us.”

Futaba nodded slowly. “He’s been really careful about what he sends in texts lately, but I can keep monitoring his devices. Still, I’ve got to know. What’s with all this palace stuff you keep talking about?”

“I’m not completely across it myself,” Akira admitted. “But you have a desire that’s become so twisted it’s manifested in the, uh, cognitive world. You have a shadow that lives there, and if it’s killed by someone who can enter that world then you’ll die too.”

She frowned and looked away, but it didn’t seem to be because she didn’t believe him at all. Or that she was confused by his rushed explanation. “Cognitive psience, huh? Akechi can go to that place?”

Akira nodded. “We can too, if you’ll let us.” Normally he’d let Morgana explain this part, but she couldn’t understand him here. “Apparently you have a treasure, the source of your twisted desires. If we steal that, they and your shadow should disappear. But we’ve never done it ourselves before, so there’s a risk things could turn out badly.”

“What do you mean by twisted desire?”

Akira shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not normal to…” He tried again. “No one should want to kill themselves.”

Ryuji glanced between them, but Futaba only curled into an even tighter ball. Morgana came out from behind Akira’s legs to approach her again. He cautiously rubbed up against her side.

“But I did something terrible,” she whispered.

“Sojiro said…”

Futaba made a sound of distress and curled up so tight Akira was concerned she was going to lose her balance. “He wasn’t there! He doesn’t know anything!”

“So you were the one who found the note?”

Futaba squeezed her head between her hands and shut her eyes. “I don’t know. I can’t remember…”

Ryuji looked confused, but he seemed to know now wasn’t a good time to interrupt. “Should we try and go in today?” Akira asked. “You said we need keywords, right?”

“Yeah, that’s basically what Akechi did with Kamoshida’s. Though he already had that all figured out before he even approached us, probably.”

“So, you don’t go out, do you Futaba-chan? I’m guessing that means your palace is your bedroom, or maybe the house.” Something he’d said registered. “But what is it?”

“Am I supposed to know?” Futaba asked, looking confused as well.

Ryuji tapped his foot and looked up at the ceiling as he thought. “Well, your problem is wanting to die, so… a coffin? A grave?”

If it was a palace then Akira suspected they needed to think bigger than that. Sojiro had said she never came out of her room. “Cemetery? Morgue?”

Futaba looked behind her. Akira guessed her room was upstairs since they hadn’t passed much on the way in. “Tomb,” she said decisively.

Akira looked down at his phone at the positive hit. “That’s it,” he said as he tapped on the new location.

“Hey!” Morgana complained, but everything around them was already changing.

“Ah! Hot!” Futaba exclaimed as she stood up suddenly and bounced from foot to foot. Akira’s socks weren’t doing much to protect him from the hot desert sand either. The only cover he could see was in the entrance to the gigantic pyramid they’d landed in front of.

Morgana clung to his leg and Akira picked him up, running toward the only cover in sight. He glanced back at Ryuji, who was still looking down at himself.

“Why am I the only one in my getup!?” he complained, then nearly fell over when Futaba jumped on his back. “You think I’m a threat to you or something?” Still, he obligingly gave her a ride up the stairs to the sliver of shade.

“Stranger danger!” she said sheepishly as she slid off him. She folded her arms, clearly uncomfortable with finding herself outside with no option to run back into her room. “Am I even supposed to be in my own palace?”

Akira looked at Morgana questioningly. “I’ve never seen it happen, but Misaki-san seemed to be ok with meeting her shadow in person.”

“Huh!?” Futaba exclaimed as she jumped back as far as she could without leaving the shade.

“Don’t mind the cat. It talks,” Ryuji said, waving a hand like he was sick of explaining it again already.

Morgana’s chest puffed up, undoubtedly getting ready to complain about being called a cat again. Akira quickly headed him off.

“So, uh… Are you going to let us in?”

“Ummm,” Futaba mumbled as she examined the stone doors. She reached a hand out, but before she could touch them, they opened of their own accord. “I guess so?”

Akira gave her a small smile. “Thank you.”

“Uh, geez, this is weird. Sorry to intrude?” Ryuji added as he hesitantly stepped over the threshold as well.

Futaba hurried on ahead like she already knew where she was going. But then, she probably had at least some instinctive idea of what this place was since it was a reflection of her own mind. Akira followed her closely down and up more stairs. She paused suddenly and looked up.

“There,” she said. “Something important.”

Morgana hummed to himself. “It doesn’t feel like treasure. But if it’s important to you, then it’s probably important to solving this place. How do we get up?”

Akira looked up and saw there seemed to be a hole in the wall near the area of interest. If they could climb up on this side and find a way to cross the sizeable gap in between, they’d be able to get up directly.

“I’ll give it a go,” Ryuji said after a moment. “Gimme a boost up there,” he added, pointing to a pillar that had a narrow platform running around it.

“You’re going to try and jump across?” Akira asked incredulously even as he tried to figure out the best way to go about it.

“I’ll come with you,” Morgana insisted as he climbed up onto Ryuji’s back. “You’ll need one of my tools to make a path for these two.”

Akira waited next to a statue with a relatively flat top that Ryuji could use as a stepping stone up to the platform he was aiming for. He knelt down and cupped his hands, and Ryuji braced his foot in them. Even Akira was surprised by how easily he managed to lift it to waist height, though it was a good thing that was high enough for Ryuji to struggle onto the platform above.

Finally Ryuji stood on the corner of the platform he’d been aiming for. “Not much of a run up,” he called down, followed by a nervous laugh.

“We can find another way,” Akira said quickly, but Ryuji had already shot off the mark.

Within a few long strides he reached the edge of the platform and entered what appeared to be pretty decent long jump form. Ryuji landed on his toes on the very edge of the other platform. His arms shot out as he tried to find his balance, and it was only Morgana climbing up onto his head that tipped him enough to fall forward safely.

The two of them crawled into the hole they’d been aiming for, but they soon came back out. “Yeah, I think you two are going to need to see this as well,” Ryuji called.

Akira heard a clang against stone and Morgana dropped a length of rope down to them. “Come on up!”

Akira eyed the rope from bottom to top and gulped. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to climb that far, presumably with Futaba on his back. But he guessed they were going to have to try.

He approached it and gave it a strong downward heave, making sure whatever Morgana had caught the other end on really was secure enough to hold them. When he was satisfied, Akira gestured for Futaba to climb on his back.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked as she did so.

“Nope.” He released her legs so he could take hold of the rope. Futaba clung to him even more tightly.

It took a while to get going, but once he figured out how to use his feet as an anchor he was able to slowly and steadily make his way up. Ryuji was leaning over the edge of the platform, watching them with a concerned expression. His worry only grew when Akira’s grip and strength started to fail about two thirds of the way up.

“Uh, I dunno if I can make it,” he panted, desperately tightening his grip on the rope between his feet. He felt this would probably be more comfortable if he had his shoes on. Note to self for next time.

“What!?” Futaba squeaked. “Then go back down!”

Akira could feel his arms shaking. “I don’t think I’d make it,” he admitted, trying not to sound too worried. Her freaking out on him wouldn’t help either of them.

“I’ve got you!” Ryuji said before disappearing back over the ledge. Akira felt something vibrate along the rope, and then suddenly the distance between them and the edge started shrinking.

They rose up one steady haul on the rope at a time, and soon enough the ledge was almost in reach. “C-climb up,” Akira encouraged Futaba.

She made a distressed noise as she looked down, but shakily reached upward. Ryuji gave one more pull and she was able to rest her forearms up there, at least. “I can’t pull myself up!”

“Put your feet on my shoulders.” Akira inched up a little higher, trying to give her a boost. Futaba reached out for something and managed to scramble up and over, presumably because Ryuji had offered an arm to help her up.

“Just hang on for a bit longer,” Ryuji said, quieter now thanks to the exertion.

Akira took hold of the ledge as soon as it was in reach. He trembled, and realised he wasn’t going to be able to pull himself the rest of the way up after all that. He looked at Ryuji, who was more or less lying on his back with one leg braced against the ground and the rope wrapped around his forearm. They would never have gotten away with this in the real world, but fortunately Ryuji was too focused on what he was doing to let physics interfere.

Futaba took hold of Akira’s arm, but there was only so much she could do to help. Ryuji hauled up another length of the rope, and finally Akira managed to roll onto the platform as well. The moment he was up, Ryuji let the rope go and collapsed. But he only rubbed his arms for a second before crawling over to Akira.

When Akira looked up again, Ryuji was dressed in what he called his summer uniform once more. Ryuji sighed and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him further away from the edge. It seemed he hadn’t noticed the change yet.

“After all that… This had better be good,” Akira mumbled as they all panted to get their breaths back. Ryuji tried to laugh, but it was too much for the moment.

“This is why… we’ve gotta train more.”

Akira snorted as they all managed to get to their feet. Returning to the business at hand, the four of them moved cautiously down the stone hallway. Akira noticed how Ryuji stayed close to him with a hand on his elbow, but he tried to avoid getting distracted for the moment.

Sunlight filtered in through the more sizeable cracks between the stone slabs near the ceiling. Akira turned his attention to the huge image on the wall and frowned.

Futaba walked up to it and put her hand against it. She stared at the screen with wide eyes, but she seemed to be seeing a lot more than what was in front of her.

“This is them telling me about the contents of Mum’s note.”

Akira stepped closer to her, but she didn’t look up. “So, someone else told you all those things. But you didn’t see any suicide notes or letters yourself?”

Futaba bowed her head. “Yes, but… I also saw the moment she did it…” Her breath caught in her throat and she shook her head.

Akira got the feeling they were going to learn more about that before this ordeal was over, so he didn’t press her to explain further just yet. Something obviously wasn’t adding up here, though. Sojiro had been quite adamant that she hadn’t, but Futaba was saying she’d seen the event with her own eyes.

Was Sojiro in denial, or had there been another factor? Of course Akira knew at least one person who had the ability to make people do things that’d result in their own death. And he was starting to get a bad feeling he’d been involved in this.

But he still couldn’t figure out the why.

“Sojiro’s not your father, is he?”

Futaba made a wet sound of amusement. “No. I was already around by the time he met my mum, and she was too busy with her research to even think about another relationship. He took me in a few years ago after realising the rest of my family are terrible.”

Akira glanced up when he heard a foot scuff against stone and realised Ryuji had kicked the pedestal behind them. “What is it with single mothers being made to feel like they’re the scum of the earth?” he demanded. “It takes two to make a fucking kid, doesn’t it? God forbid you can’t look after them and work full time.”

Futaba kept one of her hands on the screen, but looked back at him wonderingly. “My mum was a career woman, so I never got to see her as much as I wanted. A really famous researcher in her field, niche as it is. She figured out all this,” she said as she gestured widely at the palace around them, it seemed. “I wish she could have seen she was right.”

“So if she was happily doing what she wanted, you weren’t exactly a burden on her, right?” Akira said quietly.

Futaba turned back to the screen and looked down. “Well, maybe on her time.”

“Not to the extent that she’d want to kill herself over it, though. Even if she did feel that way for some other reason, it can’t have been your fault.” Even if it was all about Futaba, it still wouldn’t have been fair to blame her.

Futaba looked up at him, expression grim and eyes shining. “You really think so?”

“Do you?”

Futaba looked up at the source of light behind them. After a moment she turned back to the screen and nodded firmly before pushing her hands against it sharply. Cracks spread over the image before it flickered and faded to black.

All at once the screen shattered. Akira pulled her back as the glass fell, but fortunately most of it landed in the corridor below them instead of on their heads. Rays of sunlight flooded the tomb, revealing a long stairway that headed upward. Directly ahead of them more stone crumbled to reveal a hint of another similar image up ahead.

Futaba brought her fists to her chest and nodded. “I think I know what I have to do now.”

Morgana patted her leg and Ryuji came back over to them. “Then let’s get it done!”

For some reason they all looked to Akira, as if waiting for something. He nodded, a small smile forming on his face. Even if they would have to fight shadows here later, he got the feeling they’d be the least of their problems.

“Right,” he agreed softly.

* * *

Unfortunately they hadn’t been able to find a way to climb up to the next picture, despite Ryuji’s many insistent attempts. But as they wandered through the corridors, it soon became apparent that any traps and puzzles Futaba’s subconscious might have set for intruders had all been solved.

Akira glanced at Ryuji as he sighed and stretched his arms over his head. “This has got to be the most chill palace ever.”

“Only because we’re in the owner’s good books,” Morgana commented. They had another fun time struggling to climb up a vertical surface, but this time it wasn’t quite as high. They jumped out onto one of the boulders that had backed up the corridor and started carefully leaping between them.

Akira brought up the rear, making sure Futaba wasn’t going to lose her footing. She was the least experienced of all of them at navigating this kind of thing, though he had to admit he wasn’t doing much better. Mementos was straightforward compared to this.

There was a collective sigh of relief when they reached the next mural, but that feeling was quick to fade when they saw what it was of. Futaba gripped her head and squatted down, curling in on herself.

“I don’t… I don’t want to see this again!” she sobbed. Akira glanced around when the sunlight streaming into the damaged pyramid seemed to dim.

Familiar blue flames raced over his and Ryuji’s bodies as their clothes changed again. Ryuji took a few hesitant steps forward.

“No one said this was gonna be easy. But you’ve gotta face this if you want to change.”

Futaba shook her head before wrapping her arms over it. “I… It hurts so much,” she admitted. “I want to make it stop!”

“Hey,” Akira said gently. “We don’t have to do all of this today. But you do have to promise me we can come back and try again soon.” The sooner the better, but obviously time pressure wasn’t going to help her.

Futaba trembled for a few more moments before finally looking up at them. She took a shaky breath. “Ok, ok… Another day.”

Akira stepped forward and offered his hand to her. She took hold of it with both of hers and let him pull her to her feet.

“Let’s leave something to help us get back up here faster next time, then we can go.”

Morgana nodded and took another rope out of his bag. Akira guessed he should practice climbing them before they came back.

Futaba stayed close to them as they made their way back out. He hoped that meant she was going to trust them to help her deal with this.


	20. Chapter 20

Ann glanced at Haru significantly when Akechi began the meeting without waiting for Ryuji. They were in the noisy diner on Central Street today, so it wasn’t like he would have gotten lost on the way here. It’d been a while since they’d been coerced into a job, but she knew he wasn’t dumb enough to put his own mother at risk.

Akechi suddenly fell silent and glared between them. Obviously he hadn’t missed their silent exchange. “Do you have something you want to say?”

Ann looked down at her fruit tea. Haru spoke up in an almost shrill voice. “Where is Ryuji-kun?”

He folded his arms and legs and looked away from them. “Does it matter?”

Haru stood up, expression twisting. Ann quickly pulled at her arm. “I saw him with Akira-kun today,” she explained urgently. It was unlikely he’d died sometime in the last hour.

Haru deflated slightly. “Does that mean you don’t have leverage over his mother anymore? Could Akira-kun have helped them somehow?”

“Sit _down_ ,” Akechi spat even more venomously than usual. It sounded like Haru was actually onto something, but she begrudgingly did so. “Kurusu may have managed to make her shadow disappear, but that doesn’t mean she’s not in danger anymore,” he admitted sharply.

Ann sat up straight when realisation hit her. “But it’s a hell of a lot harder for you to get away with murder in the real world. You’d only risk doing that if he tried to say anything to the authorities.”

“Are you looking to test that theory?”

Ann frowned and opened her mouth, but the thought of Shiho quickly silenced her. According to her doctors her recovery was going extremely well, but she was still living in a long stay ward for the time being. Ann couldn’t help but worry what Akechi was going to do to her when Shiho wasn’t such an easy target anymore, but it was hard to plan ahead like that when he was so unpredictable.

Ann was distracted from her thoughts when someone stopped next to their table. She glanced up, surprised to find it wasn’t the waitress coming back yet again. She swore the service was never that good in this place, which probably meant Akechi had been recognised.

“Niijima-sempai?” Ann mumbled when she realised she knew the girl’s face from school assemblies. She’d never seen her look so downcast.

Akechi leaned forward over the table again and shuffled over in his booth seat a little more. Niijima sat down next to him. “As I was trying to say earlier, we will still be a team of four.”

“But, what? Makoto-san?” Haru interjected again.

She sighed and looked away. “He saved me by…” her face twisted in disgust, “stopping someone who was threatening me.”

Ann smacked her hands against the table. “You don’t owe him anything! Don’t get caught up in this for a stupid reason like that.”

Makoto’s frown grew. “You don’t understand.”

But Akechi didn’t seem to mind explaining if it meant he could brag about something. “She went and got herself into trouble with some yakuza types. As if she could handle something like that on her own.”

Niijima looked away violently and folded her arms even tighter. “Shujin students were being victimised! What was I supposed to do? Ignore it?”

“Why didn’t you just call the police?” Haru asked softly.

“I was going to, after I’d gathered enough evidence to be taken seriously. They hadn’t been able to pin down the gang’s identity before now, despite all the victims and witnesses coming forward.”

“At any rate,” Akechi interrupted remorselessly, “they quickly caught onto what she was doing and attempted to blackmail her with some questionable photographs they’d taken of her. Either they would have released them and ruined her future prospects, or she would have had to take up unsavoury work to try and pay back an endless debt.” Akechi looked down at the table as he pushed some of his hair back, and Ann thought she finally understood the phrase ‘thousand yard stare’. “The same end result.”

The mere thought of anyone else being used in the same way she had almost been was too much for Ann to bear. “Don’t sit there and act like you’re some kind of hero,” she snapped, surprising herself. “You’re doing exactly the same thing as that asshole. Do you think threatening us into helping you kill people is any better?”

“It’s better for your sense of dignity, isn’t it?”

Ann had seen Akechi make hateful expressions before, but never anything like this. She got the impression those emotions weren’t being directed entirely at her.

“Akechi-kun,” Niijima began, but his glare quickly shut her up. It sounded like the two of them knew each other beyond this entire mess. Maybe Niijima knew things about his past that they didn’t.

“Now if you’re all finished, this really shouldn’t take very long. Today’s target should be a relatively simple one if we all work together properly, for once.” He took out his phone and scrolled through the app. He frowned and squinted at something on the screen for a long beat of silence. “And it looks like we might be busy tomorrow, too.”

“Two days in a row?” Makoto asked quietly. “I have exams to study for.”

Ann almost laughed at the ridiculousness of her complaint.

“That’s your problem,” he replied meanly.

“Well, excuse me for having to work hard for my grades.”

“This isn’t a social outing,” Akechi snapped. “You owe me, so find a way to balance this with not being a drag on your sister.”

Makoto pursed her lips and remained silent. Ann honestly didn’t know how he expected them to do anything for him when he kept destroying their morale like this. He, of all people, should have noticed how important that was in the other world.

Once Akechi was done confirming their plan wasn’t going to be too different to what they’d been doing up to this point, Ann got a chance to slip away to the bathroom. It’d probably be considered treason now, but she sent Ryuji a quick text before hurrying to meet back up with the rest.

If Akira really had been the one to help him, maybe they could also stop them from being responsible for another death.

* * *

Akira dropped his bag on the ground and pitched forward into bed the moment he got home. Yusuke was exhausting. Futaba was exhausting. And Ryuji too.

He felt the latter’s weight sink against the mattress next to him. He didn’t miss the way he winced, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it yet. Hesitant fingers ran through his hair.

Maybe he wasn’t tiring all the time.

Akira scrunched his face up when Ryuji went to tug his extremely crooked glasses off, but didn’t bother protesting. Ryuji leaned over to carefully put them on the windowsill, and Akira’s face remained like that when his BO became only became more obvious.

“Ryuji, you need to change your shirt more than once a week.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes. “How do you know I’m not actually a cartoon character with seven repeats of one outfit in my wardrobe?”

“You stink too much.”

“Smacking them things in whatever passes for their face takes a lot more effort than just standing there lookin’ pretty while your Persona does all the work,” he protested.

Normally Akira would tease him about calling him pretty, but he just sighed and said, “It’s still mentally exhausting. How am I supposed to study for exams like this?” He inhaled deeply, about to make a comment about Yusuke’s awakening and their other incomplete palace, but he ended up getting another whiff of Ryuji’s armpits and making a choking noise instead.

“Oh my fucking god,” Ryuji muttered exasperatedly as he suddenly sat up straight. He yanked his shirt off over his head and used it to wipe his armpits before tossing it toward the middle of the room. Akira rolled onto his side so Ryuji would have a little more room to lay down next to him. “Ya happy now?”

Akira made a sound of consideration as he brought a finger to his chin. “Maybe I’d be happier if I still had my glasses on.” He didn’t need them to know he’d made Ryuji blush. But then, his face was feeling kind of warm too.

“You can’t just go around saying shit like that,” Ryuji muttered. But he seemed pleased.

Before Akira could tease him about it, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to check it automatically, and it seemed to remind Ryuji of something as he pulled his out as well. Akira managed to unlock his phone, but couldn’t figure out who the notification was from. He lazily shoved the screen under Ryuji’s nose.

“What is it? From who?”

“Uh, Futaba says she wants to have a go at the palace thing again tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Akira knew it was important. He’d been the one to tell her to prepare herself to go in again soon. But he was so tired.

Ryuji turned his attention back to his own phone. “Oh shit, I missed a message from Ann. Looks like they were forced to go back to Mementos again today.” He ran a stressed hand through his hair. “Damn, if I had’ve checked it earlier we could’ve done something.”

“Like what?” Akira asked quietly. “We only barely got away from Akechi when it was four on one and he was underestimating us.”

“Well… she says they’ve got another trip lined up for tomorrow too. There has to be something we can do.”

Akira closed his eyes. Of course he wanted to prevent Akechi from killing anyone else, and the girls from being dragged along for the ride. But if they acted recklessly, or tried to do too much at once, they wouldn’t be able to help anyone.

“I think we’re already being pulled in too many directions just trying to recruit allies. I don’t want them to suffer, but when we take action we have to be able to do it once, and do it right.”

Ryuji didn’t seem to be particularly happy with that. “I’ll just… tell her we’re working on helping them?”

Akechi surely already knew they were doing that much, so there was no harm in saying anything. Akira nodded. “Tell her I’m sorry we can’t do more now.”

“That’s still pretty cold, man,” Ryuji muttered as he typed away.

“I know. But we can’t afford to fail. We already know he wants to kill us.”

Ryuji sighed as he flopped back down on his side and let his head rest against Akira’s. “This fucking sucks.” Akira made a sound of agreement, but then his phone started ringing in his hand. “It’s Yusuke,” Ryuji said without needing to be asked.

Akira put the phone on speaker. “Yusuke?”

“Yo,” Ryuji added to let him know he could hear him as well.

“I suppose I should not be surprised by the fact you two are together,” Yusuke said quietly. “But it is convenient for me.”

“Is everything ok?” Akira asked.

“I may have… had a conversation with the real Madarame that was similar to our metaverse one,” he mumbled. “And perhaps I refused to paint anything for him ever again because he has already profited to a disgusting level off my mother’s artwork.”

“Good!” Ryuji said loudly before Akira could reply.

“It certainly felt that way at the time,” Yusuke agreed. “However, I’ve been locked in my room and told I must either stop being childish or risk being kicked out of my home.”

“Yusuke,” Akira said quietly. Of course taking action like that before changing his heart would have had consequences.

“I’m going to see my school’s scholarship office in the morning and see if I can move into one of the dormitories. It’s normally covered for students who can only attend by boarding away from home, anyway.” Akira and Ryuji shared a look. “However, I am rather hungry after all of our activity today, and I didn’t get a chance to eat before our argument. I don’t suppose one of you could…”

Ryuji looked annoyed, but Akira doubted it was at Yusuke himself. “Yeah man, I can grab you something on my way home. I was about to head off anyway.”

“Oh, thank you,” Yusuke said, clearly relieved. “Unfortunately I don’t have any way to pay you for it, though.”

“Sure you do,” Akira said softly. “This definitely counts as a team expense, and you helped us get money off shadows today, so…”

“I see,” Yusuke said, sounding happier with that than the idea of accepting charity. “Then I hope I can continue to be of assistance.”

“Actually, if you’re free, we might need your help with some palace stuff tomorrow after school. There’s less fighting since we’re in this one to help a friend, but I get the feeling things are only going to get tougher.”

“Of course,” Yusuke agreed without even asking for more details. “I will meet up with you once I have my living situation sorted out. I would like to see what happens next before continuing with Sensei’s palace, in any case.”

“Ok, I’ll be over there soon,” Ryuji said even as he shared another look with Akira.

“Goodnight,” Yusuke said before hanging up.

Akira put a hand on Ryuji’s shoulder before he could sit up. He pressed their mouths together and stroked a thumb along his collarbone. Ryuji made a muffled noise, but soon started kissing him back.

Akira slowly backed off and waited until Ryuji had blinked his eyes open again before speaking. “You don’t have to come tomorrow if you need to give your leg a break.”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re fighting with Futaba.”

“Do me a favour and stay in the back lines if things do get violent?”

Ryuji was clearly unhappy with that request too. “Do you really think they will?”

“It seems to me like Futaba is fighting herself. So I think we’ll all get caught in that when we go deeper into her palace.”

Ryuji nodded slowly before sitting upright. “I’ll try to stay out of trouble,” he said, but he still sounded a little bitter.

“Thank you.” Suddenly Akira was having even more trouble keeping his eyes open.

He heard the rustle of fabric as Ryuji got up and put his shirt on. He flicked the lights out for him. “Get some sleep,” he said softly before making his way down the stairs.

Akira didn’t need to be told twice.


	21. Chapter 21

Goro tried to ignore the looks of pity Caroline and Justine sent his way when they came to collect him. This time he wanted to be there. He had a fight to prepare for.

When they did the same song and dance as always of leading him down the dark corridor, he noticed the floor seemed to be rusting away even faster than the walls now. He paused a few metres from the heavy door when it became apparent that the flooring around it had crumbled away.

Caroline paused over the gaping darkness below and put her hands on her hips. She sighed impatiently as she turned around. “We don’t have all day!”

She tapped her stick against the ground. Oddly enough it still made a clanging sound. He wasn’t sure whether to believe his perception was just an optical illusion when he’d seen them walk through a door that was solid for him. But if this was a result of his cognition, there had to be a way to change it.

Goro berated himself for being a coward as he closed his eyes and took a couple more steps forward. Just when he thought he was fine, his toes abruptly had nothing to connect with and he dropped like a stone.

His first instinct was to reach upward and grab the edge he’d just fallen from, but of course his arms were still bound by the straightjacket. He felt himself sliding down a steep slope, and instead focused on digging his heels into it. Eventually the friction built up enough to bring him to a halt. But when he looked up again the dim light of the corridor was so far away.

“Wrong way, inmate!” Caroline scolded as though this was a perfectly normal occurrence. “Get back up here!”

“I wasn’t exactly intending on staying here,” he snapped in return.

Never again could he go back to that lifeless place. He’d read enough revenge stories to know achieving his goal wasn’t going to make him happy even if he did manage it. But that wasn’t what this was about. The fire in his gut that came from working toward it was the only thing pulling him forward most days.

“Good,” Justine replied softly, yet somehow it was loud enough to echo down to him.

Goro turned on his heel, carefully, and started the slow crawl back up to where he’d come from. He could barely see what was in front of him, but the slope slowed him up, and he slid around like it was mostly made of dirt and rock. Of course his arms being bound wasn’t making things any easier. But he felt like he was making progress over all.

_What are you doing?_

Actual words from Loki were rare. Usually it was more like a surge of feeling, or an intuitive realisation.

“Becoming annoyed by this metaphor that’s so on the nose I think mine might have broken,” he snapped. It wasn’t like he spoke to himself nicely at the best of times.

_Didn’t we already pass this rock?_

Goro grit his teeth as he stuck his knee out to increase the surface area of his body that was touching the slope, hoping to build up enough friction to come to a halt again. His fists clenched where they were pressed against his torso.

_I’ll help you._

Goro got the impression his Persona was talking about a lot more than just this pit of despair. He sighed as he let himself transform. This was a lot easier with hands.

When he finally reached the top and managed to pull himself out, Caroline was still tapping her foot as impatiently as ever. “Better hurry up or you’re going to be late for school.”

“I didn’t know you were my alarm clock,” Goro replied flatly.

But it seemed he didn’t have much time. If Kurusu was going to rally allies around himself, he’d have to be prepared for each of them. And that meant doing something other than sacrificing the other Personas he’d collected for the sake of his main two.

On hearing his request, Caroline and Justine shared a small smile. “I see,” Justine said quietly, though her twin was much less subtle.

“It’s about time you got it through your thick head, inmate!”

* * *

“Why do you have to bring this weird stalker into my brain!?” Futaba demanded from her safe spot on top of the stairs. She was leaning away from Yusuke even though he was at the bottom of them.

“I am not a weird stalker!” he protested.

“You kind of are,” Ryuji interjected, much to Yusuke’s chagrin.

Akira stepped forward, putting himself between Yusuke and Futaba. He should have seen this coming, but somehow he’d forgotten how he’d met Yusuke in the first place. He really was exhausted.

“I’m sorry for bringing other people along all the time, but you obviously don’t want to do this. I’m worried your subconscious is going to throw up more resistance than we can handle alone right now. So please, I trust him. You can too.”

Futaba pouted and wrapped her arms around her knees. Morgana rubbed up against her side. “Come on, the sooner we do this, the sooner I’ll tolerate your cuddles.”

Akira appreciated Morgana sacrificing himself for their cause, but he didn’t have to word it that way.

Futaba sighed loudly. “All right, fine! Let’s just get this over with.”

Akira pulled out his phone and soon enough they were in the desert once again. As he’d expected, all of them were in their metaverse outfits now.

Futaba looked down at her feet and sighed in relief. “So the shoes did come with me. But still, hot.”

“You’re telling me,” Ryuji muttered, not even reacting to Morgana jumping on his back as they headed over to the stairs.

Akira glanced at Yusuke when he didn’t move. He seemed to be framing up the pyramid.

“This is amazing!” he exclaimed as he took a few steps back and then one over to the right. “If only I could bring a canvas into the metaverse.”

Futaba looked back at him and seemed to be embarrassed for some reason. She looked him up and down before putting her hands on her hips. “So he’s not only a stalker, but a furry too?” Yusuke tilted his head in confusion and she continued. “Stop perving on my brain, Inari!”

“Humph, what a ridiculous assertion.” Yusuke folded his arms and looked away.

“Well you ain’t got nothing else worth perving on,” Ryuji mocked. “You know Akira still thinks you’re like twelve, right?”

“What!?” Futaba spluttered as her fists snapped to her sides.

Morgana sighed and brought a small paw to his head. “Do you have a death wish, moron? Don’t piss off the palace owner!”

“Ugh, boys are the worst! Can’t you bring another girl next time?” Futaba complained. Her face was bright red, and Akira didn’t think it was entirely because of the sun.

Ryuji and Akira shared a look. Unfortunately all their female friends who were down with the metaverse were busy being extorted by a murderer.

“Come on, let’s get going,” Akira said quietly as he patted one of her shoulders. He started walking toward the pyramid’s entrance, and thankfully Yusuke followed him this time.

Futaba grumbled, but she didn’t want to be left behind so she eventually followed them as well. Thanks to the way the palace was constructed, it didn’t take them long at all to reach the place they’d left off from. Akira was relieved to see a crumbling staircase had appeared since last time they’d been here, so they shouldn’t need to try and do the whole rope thing again.

“That looks really unstable,” Ryuji muttered. “You go first, Mona.”

Morgana didn’t seem to be opposed to this shortening of his name because he did so without argument. Akira glanced at Futaba and saw she had her eyes shut and fists clenched.

“You’d better go next, Inari. Before I convince myself I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Yusuke didn’t complain about what seemed to be his new nickname and moved up as well. He lightly jumped off the top of the stairs to stand next to the hole in the wall.

“Perhaps you should come up next before you change your mind,” he commented loudly enough to be heard clearly. Morgana shushed him, but they were probably fine for now either way.

“Come on, we’ll go up together,” Akira said as he put one foot on the first stair. Futaba followed, but the whole structure trembled when she did.

“Stop being such a baby,” Ryuji said from behind them.

Futaba turned to scowl at him, and the stairs stabilised again. It seemed Ryuji was doing this for a reason, so Akira chose to keep his mouth shut for now. He pulled on her arm a little, and she took a few more steps up without looking where she was going.

“Weren’t you the one who called us all here for this? Don’t pussy out now,” Ryuji continued as he followed them up.

“I’m not a coward!” she snapped before making a sound of frustration. “Think fast, track-dumbass!”

Suddenly the stairs Ryuji was standing on fell out from beneath him. He managed to move fast enough to climb up past them, but Futaba looked appeased. She chased him up there and Akira hurried to keep up with them, just in case.

“All right,” Akira began when they had all assembled in front of the next mural. But he didn’t have time to even think about the implication of the image’s content when something hit him in the back of the head.

Everyone around him jumped and made some kind of exclamation as he staggered forward. He was shoved to the ground before he could get his bearings.

When Akira turned over he had a gun in his face and his teammates were surrounded. He recognised Ann and Haru’s outfits, but wasn’t sure about the other girl. He looked up at the black masked figure above him and quickly put it together.

“Fuck.”

“You’re making that your last word?” Akechi sneered, and for a moment it almost felt like a normal conversation.

“Akira!” Futaba exclaimed, clearly panicking.

Akira watched Akechi’s finger squeeze the trigger, hoping his Persona would be able to defend him enough for it to take more than one magazine to finish him off. But before Akechi could let a shot off, shadows were bursting out of the ground around them. Two reptilian looking beings dived at Akechi, separating them and giving Akira a chance to get back to his feet.

Akechi dealt with them frighteningly quickly. His murderous intent turned toward the girls.

“Well don’t just stand there, you idiots.”

Both Ann and Haru hesitated and lowered their guns slightly. “Akechi…” the third girl began, and Akira thought he recognised her voice.

“Have you already forgotten why you’re here?” he snapped.

Ann sighed. “I’m sorry Ryuji,” she muttered before tossing a fireball at him. Ryuji raised his arms to block it, seemingly mostly unharmed. Akira didn’t know if it was because Ann couldn’t bring herself to try very hard, or if he just had some level of resistance to her attack.

Haru dropped her weapon on the ground and backed right off away from them. “I can’t do this!” she exclaimed as she backed into the wall and curled up into a ball.

“I am sorry about this, Ann,” Yusuke interrupted as he sent an ice attack in her direction. It hit her hard, making her fall over.

Akira readied his knife as Akechi pulled out his sword and wound up for a strike. “I will not ignore this, Okumura!” he roared before flying directly at Futaba.

She squeaked and jumped back between the other two boys. More shadows rose up, but they were cut down just as quickly.

Akira could see his allies were panicking. He had to be the one to keep a level head and get them out of this. He squinted as something bright enough to burn his retinas in the real world went up, and realised the third girl was using nuclear attacks.

Futaba had somehow managed to scramble out of the way of it, but the boys weren’t doing so well. Morgana healed them as best he could in the time they barely had.

“Ryuji, focus on the girl behind you! Futaba, get out of there and focus on defending yourself. Yusuke and Morgana, with me!”

“You think that’s going to make a difference?” Akechi demanded, and suddenly he’d changed back into the outfit Akira was more familiar. “Principality!”

Akira flinched as the warmer light engulfed and burnt him. He really was in trouble now, but he couldn’t stop to recover. Morgana might have recently figured out how to heal them all at once, but a foe that could attack all of them at once had been a rare thing.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that when Ann got to her feet again, and suddenly Ryuji had two people to deal with instead of one. How was he supposed to guide strategise when the fight was so chaotic? They’d have been done for if Haru hadn’t run away. Akira supposed all he could do was try to stop the other girls from fighting too.

“Focus on Ann,” he advised. It’d hurt her, but they could incapacitate her for a bit longer without risking her life.

Yusuke nodded grimly before turning away, trusting him and Morgana to deal with Akechi. Deciding to risk it, Akira pulled Arsene forward and let a curse-based attack fly. Luckily he’d been correct in his assumption that it was the Persona’s weakness. Akechi seemed shocked when he landed on his ass, as though he’d forgotten he wasn’t invulnerable.

Another nuclear attack went up before Akira could land a follow up blow, and he had to focus on trying to dodge out the way instead. Fortunately he was successful there too, otherwise he wasn’t sure he would have survived the hit.

Morgana hopped over and healed him up, but that was enough time for Akechi to get up and change his Persona again. Akira heard a cry, and then Ann was lying on the ground in a shivering heap. Yusuke drew his sword and turned to strike the third girl alongside Ryuji.

Akechi turned away from Akira and Morgana, and all at once his Persona was landing a heavy blow on Ryuji. Akira’s eyes widened as he flew across the small distance between where he was standing and the mural on the wall. He hit the wall next to Futaba and slid to the ground.

Futaba immediately bent down to check on him, and it was only then that Akira noticed she was also standing on Ryuji’s other side, leaning against the mural with her arms folded. Her shadow, presumably. Both versions of her looked worried.

Akira brought a hand to his forehead and grit his teeth. He’d known something like this would happen if Ryuji fought today. But they’d already been struggling enough as it was without sending him away too. If he’d even listen to him.

“You’re going to regret that,” Akira found himself saying.

If he could see Akechi’s expression under the black mask, he’d assume it was amused. He raised his gun and pointed it in Ryuji and Futaba’s direction, now breathing heavily.

“Are you so sure about that? What do you think someone in her mental state would do if I triggered a shutdown?” Akechi brought his other hand up and clenched it by his face. A red aura rose around him as he zeroed in on his target.

“This is how you killed her, isn’t it?” Futaba’s shadow said flatly. “It wasn’t me. It was you.”

“She was one of the first,” Akechi admitted. “I won’t make you suffer any more than I have already.”

“Oh, great,” the shadow deadpanned. A red aura rose around her as well, but both parts of Futaba stomped a foot against the ground. “In case you’ve forgotten, this is _my_ palace!”

The air seemed to still, like the moment in time was being stretched out. The green glyphs they’d seen hints of elsewhere in the palace concentrated in the room around them. There was a crack of stone on stone, and then the flooring Akechi was standing on shot upward and collided with the ceiling.

Both Yusuke and his opponent gasped at the violent movement. The red aura faded and Futaba looked up at her shadow with wide eyes. She stood up shakily, reaching a hand toward the mural without looking away. She touched it with one finger and it exploded outward.

When it seemed like no one was going to recommence the attack for the moment, Akira put his weapons away and ran over to Ryuji. He pulled him away from the edge of the platform they were on and quickly changed his Persona to something that could heal. While he waited for Ryuji to recover he looked up at the light that was emitting from Futaba’s shadow.

They were both looking toward the wall that had completely fallen away from the next, and he guessed final, mural. Mostly because the ceiling was starting to collapse, illuminating the whole place with sunlight.

“Mum,” both parts of her whispered. Futaba pushed her glasses up so she could wipe at her eyes. Her shadow disappeared in a soft glow of white light.

“We should go before this place falls on our heads,” Ryuji muttered, clearly still dazed. “Shit, I can’t move.”

The three of them started when there was a particularly loud crack of rock above them. Akechi’s fist stuck out of the rubble like something from a bad horror movie, and then his Persona blasted the rest of it aside. Ignoring them completely, he ran for the exit.

Akira looked around at the others as he helped Ryuji to his feet. It seemed Yusuke and his opponent had decided they could trust each other enough to help Ann up. Morgana was busy saying something to Haru, who was still curled up on the ground.

“Neither can anyone else, it seems,” Akira replied, trying to keep his tone calm. The exit wasn’t far, but with all the rock and rubble raining down he couldn’t see a clear path to it anymore.

“I’ll get us out,” Futaba said as she put her glasses back in place. The green light became dense in the room once again, and the next thing Akira knew the sun was beating down on their heads.

Someone else must have activated the app because the next thing he knew they were all packed into what was presumably Futaba’s bedroom. It took Akira a moment to realise why noisy footsteps on the stairs should worry him, but as soon as he did he released Ryuji and ran out the door.

He jumped to the bottom of the staircase as Akechi disappeared around the corner into the entrance hall. He sprinted after him, but Akechi’s strides were just as long as his. The other boy fumbled with the handle of the front door, and that was when Akira got a chance to tackle him to the ground.

Akechi lashed out at him, kicking and trying to scratch at his eyes. There was something wild and desperate in his gaze. Akira flinched and ducked his head as he took a beating, but he wasn’t letting go now. Both of them looked up with some kind of fear in their eyes when the front door suddenly swung open.

Sojiro stared down at them with the deepest frown that Akira had ever seen on his face. He looked up behind them, and then back down again. “Would someone care to explain what the _hell_ is going on here?”

Futaba appeared behind them. Most of the others seemed to have followed her downstairs as well. Including, oh, Makoto. “H-house party, woo?” Futaba tried.

Sojiro looked unconvinced. Futaba laughed uncomfortably before keeling over. It seemed she’d passed out from exhaustion.

“Akira!?” Sojiro demanded.

He flinched, but made sure to keep his hold on Akechi. Who knew what he’d try now?

“I can explain,” Akira said quickly.

Sojiro clearly didn’t believe him, but then, Akira didn’t really believe himself either.


	22. Chapter 22

Akira and Ryuji dragged Akechi into the lounge room and then promptly forced him to the ground so they could sit on him. Surprisingly, he didn’t bother protesting this treatment, simply lying flat and continuing to glare into the corner of the room he could see.

Futaba had already been laid on the couch, and everyone else was standing around in small awkward groups in the tiny room. Sojiro massaged his forehead and leaned further back into the lone armchair.

“Why is half your class here? And the rest?” Sojiro demanded as he looked between Akechi and Yusuke. His eyes lingered on Yusuke for a moment, but he seemed to decide that question could wait.

If Futaba were awake, all of this would be a whole lot easier. Sojiro actually trusted her.

Akira knew he’d already hesitated too long. Whatever he said probably wasn’t going to be believed. “Well, you know Futaba and I talk sometimes,” he began awkwardly. “Even in person a few times. And Ryuji too.”

Sojiro tapped the arm of the chair impatiently, but Akira’s mind was blank. What the hell could he say that made sense and didn’t make it sound like he’d broken and entered for shits and giggles?

Maybe he should just try to tell the truth. He could always take Sojiro to the metaverse if he didn’t believe him. And Misaki was a trustworthy source who could confirm what they were saying. He’d have to be careful not to get caught up in it himself if they got the police involved, but Futaba could probably get geolocation and other evidence from Akechi’s phone records over the last few years and…

Suddenly everything became unnaturally still. Akira blinked a few times, but the room around him really had gone dark, like the light had just blown. But surely if that was what had happened, someone else would have reacted to it too.

_Too slow, Trickster. This is where your ruin begins._

Akira started at the soft, feminine voice that sounded like it was coming from inside his head. His eyes were drawn to the only light in the darkness, some kind of butterfly-shaped spark. It circled downward to land in front of Akechi’s face, who could evidently see and probably hear it too. He turned to face the ground as much as he could in his current predicament.

_You were explicitly told what you needed to do, and yet you only brought pain and suffering to all who could have helped you._

Akira bit his lip as he tried to think. This was the start of his ruin? As in, his death? He supposed he could see how. If they convincingly told the truth to Sojiro, then the authorities would inevitably get involved. If Akechi was found to be guilty of everything he’d done, there was no question he’d be executed.

Akira had never had a real reason to think about the death penalty being a thing, but suddenly he was beginning to question its purpose. Was taking life for life really going to solve anything, or send any kind of meaningful message to others who might do the same?

He looked back up in the direction he knew Sojiro was sitting in. He had to lie. This could get out of control too easily in someone else’s hands.

The butterfly vanished and then the room returned to normal. Sojiro was raising an eyebrow.

“After hearing what Futaba had been through, and all the anxiety and social issues it brought…” They’d what, decided to overwhelm her with a visit? _Think_.

“That’s right,” Makoto said suddenly. “Akira-kun brought his concerns up with me at school, and I suggested we should try some exposure therapy. With strangers, as well as people she does know. But maybe we went a little overboard and tired her out.” She pushed a strand of her hair back and somehow maintained a straight face. “You know how rowdy boys can get…”

Sojiro sighed as he glanced between them. “All right, even if I did believe you, what’s all this?” He gestured vaguely in Akira, Ryuji and Akechi’s direction. “Aren’t you the one from TV?”

Akechi ignored his question, but Akira knew there was no way they could lie about that part. Sojiro had the channel he usually appeared on in the café all the time.

“Er, yeah, that’s kind of unrelated. See, the situations with his mother and Futaba’s were kind of similar. I thought it might be good for them to talk, but he just ended up getting upset. I was worried he was going to run off and do something stupid.”

Well, that wasn’t entirely wrong given what he’d said to Haru earlier.

Sojiro stared him down and Akira tried to return it with an earnest look. Eventually Sojiro shifted in his seat and made a grumbling noise.

“I know you’re bullshitting me about one or more of those things. But obviously I’m not going to get anything more out of you lot now. It’s not unusual for this to happen to Futaba, so I suppose I can give you the benefit of the doubt for now…” He frowned and added, “Do you need me to take him to the hospital?”

Akira felt Akechi stiffen. “No,” he snapped quickly.

Sojiro stood up and Akechi’s fists clenched against the ground. “It really sounds like you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

Akira answered before Akechi could say something either rude or too transparent. “He can stay in the café for tonight.”

“Dude, are you sure you want to deal with that alone?” Ryuji added quickly as he shoved Akira in the back. Clearly keeping a murderer in his room was a bad idea, but he thought he might be able to get through to him after the weird experience they’d just shared. “I’ll stay too.”

Sojiro sighed. “Fine then, do whatever you want.” He walked over to Futaba and picked her up off the couch. He clearly had priorities higher than the rules he’d tried to enforce about that. “Call if you need anything,” he added before taking Futaba back to her room.

The group shared a look when he was gone, but the house was too small for them to be able to speak freely. “So…” Makoto began. “I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

Ann sighed and put her head in her hands. “Maybe. I feel like I need to sleep for a week,” she muttered.

“You should all go,” Akira said softly. “It’s getting late.”

“Are you sure about this, Akira-kun?” Haru asked suddenly. She had her arms wrapped around herself, discomfort obvious. “You’ll have to let him go to school tomorrow if you want to avoid suspicion. My father…”

“Haru,” Akechi interrupted. “I’ve already been ordered to target your father a few months out from the next election.”

She gasped and took a step back. “All this time, you…!”

“By who?” Akira demanded urgently. Of course the way he’d worded it sounded like a threat, but if he was going to be unusually honest right now, Akira had a lot of questions he wanted answered.

“My father, Shido Masayoshi.”

“Your dad is making you kill people?” Ryuji asked, incredulous. Ann shushed him but he only rolled his eyes at her.

“Don’t misunderstand,” Akechi muttered. “I’m just playing along until I have a chance to push him off the top of his tower.”

“Why? You’ve already got your secret weapon, don’t you?” Ryuji shot back.

“It’s not the right time.”

“Is his palace really that bad?” Akira asked blandly.

“That’s not the issue!” It sure sounded like it was.

Morgana slunk over to them, but he consciously stayed out of Akechi’s arm’s reach. “We can change his heart.”

“This again?” he spat. “What does that even mean? And how do you know about it?”

“It’s like I said before. We steal his desires, he stops being his terrible self.” Morgana looked away and his ears flickered. “I don’t know how I know about it. How do _you_ know about it?”

For once Akechi looked uncertain, even if it was hard to tell while Akira was sitting on his back. “I overhead something about it in the metaverse,” he muttered.

“You know, you and Akira are a lot alike. Maybe you were the one who was supposed to find me. But it’s probably better for me that you didn’t,” Morgana said bluntly.

Akechi didn’t argue with that, but he did seem to deflate minutely. Something had shifted in his attitude, and Akira hoped it was enough to allow him some level of trust without it backfiring. He slowly stood up and stepped back when it looked like Akechi wasn’t going to move very far. Ryuji hesitated, looking at him in confusion. But after a moment he followed.

Akechi slowly sat up and paused on his knees, straightening his tie and brushing down his school shirt. Akira looked at the huddle that had slowly migrated over to the doorway.

“You should all get home, it’s late.”

Yusuke was the first to nod. “I’m going to get locked out of my dormitory if I don’t hurry.”

“Obviously I need to keep an eye on my father,” Haru added as she started backing away. Akechi didn’t look back at her.

“Um, goodnight, then,” Makoto said quietly. “Let me know if I need to make up an excuse about your whereabouts for my sister.”

The group started leaving, but Ann still hadn’t moved from where she was. “I-I did try to help you. So don’t take this out on Shiho, ok?”

When it became clear she wasn’t going to leave until she got a proper answer, Akechi looked up at the ceiling and replied, “I doubt she’ll ever become a target.”

Ann nodded and finally followed the others out of the house. When the front door closed behind them, Sojiro decided to make an appearance again.

“The futon is old, but you’re going to need some kind of extra bedding up in that damn attic,” he explained gruffly as he dumped his armful of mattress and linen in the doorway.

“Thanks,” Akira said as he bent down to pick up the blankets and a pillow. Ryuji grabbed the rest. “Goodnight.”

Sojiro just nodded as he stepped aside so they could leave. It was only when they were outside that Akechi spoke again. “Shouldn’t you have made me carry that? I could get away from you very easily right now.”

Akira glanced at him. “Are you going to?”

He didn’t reply, but he did follow them down the street to Leblanc. Akira managed to unlock the door, then somehow climbed the stairs without being able to look down and see what was under his feet.

Akechi paused on the threshold to what could be considered his room. Morgana walked past him and flicked his calf with his tail. “Well, since I’m the only one who doesn’t need to be awake in class tomorrow, I guess I can keep an eye on him.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes. “What are you gonna do if he moves? Scratch his eyes out?”

“And yours too, if you aren’t careful,” Morgana teased as he suddenly ran toward Ryuji and climbed him. Ryuji yelped and hopped back, but Morgana had already secured himself across his shoulders.

“It’s all right, that means he likes you,” Akira deadpanned, triggering Morgana to start protesting loudly.

Akira looked around the attic, wondering where he should set the bedding up. Only then did he notice Akechi’s expression appeared to be some combination of disgust and confusion.

“Don’t worry, this is normal,” he said as he decided to roll the futon out in the middle of the room. That way he wouldn’t be too close to his bed, or the stairs. “I don’t have a proper bathroom here, but you can wash up in the toilets downstairs if you want.”

“What the hell, man? I thought you just went over to Sojiro’s for a shower now,” Ryuji interrupted.

Akira shrugged. “Maybe he’ll be less adverse to me doing so if Futaba vouches for me. In the meantime, I don’t think going to the bath house is a great idea right now.”

“It’s fine,” Akechi interrupted. “It can’t possibly be any worse than the family I stayed with that limited my utility usage down to the exact yen.”

None of them knew what to say to that, so Akira moved over to his cardboard box and pulled out the clean towel and flannel. “Well, I won’t charge you the two hundred yen it’s going to cost me to do an extra load of washing this week,” Akira blurted as he handed the linen over. He knew his sense of humour only grew worse in difficult situations, but fortunately Akechi didn’t seem to be offended enough to explode at him.

The three of them took turns using the bathroom, and then settled into bed like it was some bizarre sleepover. Akira put one of the pillows on the shelf Morgana usually sat on so he could stay comfortable while he was watching over them.

Akira didn’t question Ryuji when he got in bed next to him. There wasn’t really enough room for two, but he could understand him wanting to be right there after everything that had happened.

Akira doubted any of them were going to get much sleep.


	23. Chapter 23

“Akechi,” Akira began, making sure to speak at a volume that was slightly lower than Ryuji’s snoring. It was two in the morning, but he knew his reluctant guest had to be awake.

“Is that idiot actually asleep?”

“He did almost die today,” Akira replied sharply. “That would take it out of anyone.”

“You told me to stop lying, so I won’t say I’m sorry.”

Akira sat up and looked in Akechi’s direction with a frown even though it was too dark to see much of anything. Ryuji was still snoring away, so he climbed out of bed over him as carefully as he could.

He heard the rustle of bed linen and guessed Akechi had moved to sit up in response to his apparent approach. Akechi had already crammed himself onto the furthest side of the futon, so Akira sat on the edge of it with his legs crossed. He started slightly when Morgana jumped into his lap.

“Well, I’m not the one you should be apologising to, anyway,” Akira eventually replied. He scratched Morgana’s head when he shifted on his lap fussily, probably nervously.

Akechi remained silent. It seemed he either wasn’t on board with the idea or he didn’t care.

“What are you going to do tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” Akechi eventually admitted. “I suppose I could only lie about being sick for so long. And Shido is unlikely to accept that as an excuse at all.”

Akira tilted his head slightly. “How did you go from discovering the metaverse to being someone’s attack dog? Or was it the other way around?”

He didn’t reply right away. Morgana made the closest thing to a scoffing sound as he could in his current form. “That’s one way of putting it. We would have never gotten along.”

“I don’t know,” Akira teased quietly. “You did almost maul Yusuke that one time.”

“That’s different!” he protested, and Akira had to shush him, though Ryuji did seem to be well and truly out of it. “We were all worried about Lady Ann’s safety!”

 _Lady_ Ann? He’d have to tease him about that one later.

“I planned to use the metaverse to ingratiate myself with him, and then strike him down when he was at his apex,” Akechi finally replied. “It’s been a long two years.”

“Two years? Why did you only start involving other people now?”

“The election is less than a year away. I need to ensure my success.” Akechi shifted in his seat.

“So you went around blackmailing people for help?”

He made a quiet sound of amusement. “It’s a little difficult just to ask for these things without a demonstration. But I can’t afford to have people running around who know about my involvement with the metaverse, either.”

All of that was hardly a justification from Akira’s point of view, but he supposed he could see some of how and why things had played out this way. But there had to be some kind of compromise they could reach. Simply continuing to return shadows to their owners would turn into an infinite task, and it wouldn’t stop the killing either.

“Is there any way you can separate yourself from Shido so you don’t need to do his bidding anymore?”

“Not without arousing his suspicion and possibly getting a real world hitman sent after me.”

Akira nodded slightly, having expected him to say something like that. “Then we’re going to have to act quickly.”

“We?” Akechi demanded sharply.

“Do you think I’m going to sit around and let this continue when I might be able to do something about it?” He ran a hand along Morgana’s back again, glad he’d come over to sit with him now. “If we steal his heart quickly, then no one else will have to die, and there’ll be no need for you to continue threatening us.”

“First, that isn’t remotely close to what I’m trying to achieve. Second, you will all still know about my crimes.”

“I was so close to saying something when… all that happened,” Akira began, entirely unsure of how to explain the apparent bending of reality he’d witnessed earlier in the night. “I didn’t say anything then, so why would I now?”

“What, you don’t think I deserve it?”

“Does anyone ‘deserve’ to be put to death?” Akira asked as he picked Morgana up so he could cross his legs the other way. “I get wanting to prove yourself or seeking validation from your parents, but of course I find it ridiculous that this is the conclusion you came to.” His own parents didn’t seem to care what he did either so he could understand that on some level.

“I don’t care about his opinion,” Akechi insisted, but Akira knew that didn’t really line up with what he’d been doing until now. “Anyway, how did you…? If you saw and heard that, then does that mean you’ve been there too?”

“What do you mean?” Akira asked, ignoring his sudden change of subject for now. He wanted to know more about whatever the hell had just happened too.

“You can use multiple Personas too. Don’t you have a way to fuse and sacrifice them?”

Akira rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, not that I know of. Am I supposed to?” Akechi didn’t reply, so he continued. “Is one of your Persona’s names really Principality? Because if so, that’s hilarious.” Given how princely one of his metaverse outfits looked, anyway.

Akechi sighed impatiently. “It’s not like I choose their names.”

“Well, anyway,” Akira began as he got up and went back over to the bed so he could retrieve his phone and glasses. “If you’re still not sure what you want to do, the least we can do is go have a look at his palace, right? What are the keywords?”

“You lot going there would be as good as suicide.”

Akira glanced up at him as he sat down again. “We don’t have to go in there guns blazing. And it’ll be good to have something to measure ourselves against if we really do need more training.”

Akechi sighed through his nose and waved a hand. He rattled off a name and a few words, which was enough for the app to pick up on. He set it as his current target so it’d be at the top of the list when he needed it.

Akechi took out his own phone and frowned down at it, the low light making his expression look haunted. “So it is your app I’ve been picking up on all this time,” he commented as he looked between their screens. “You haven’t been seeing my targets, have you?”

“No?” Akira muttered as he went into his search history. It was a lot more populated than he remembered. “Wait, is this…?” He kept scrolling back. There were a lot of names.

Akechi fisted the blanket that was still sitting over his hips. “I’ve been kept busy with the election coming up later this year. I have another target due by the end of next week.”

“That doesn’t leave us much time.”

He shook his head. “I keep telling you. It isn’t going to work that way.”

“You can’t just keep going like nothing’s wrong.”

“I can pretend for a bit longer, if that’s what it takes,” Akechi replied as if offended Akira didn’t think he could do it.

“Ok then, you shouldn’t have to, and no one wants you to keep killing people. You can hide out here if you need to,” he added.

“I’ve been seen here before, and talking to you. The people Shido has on his side shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Akira got the impression he had some level of pride in the fact he’d been counted among their number until recently. He pushed his glasses up his nose as he thought.

“What about that other place you mentioned? Can’t you just hide there?” The metaverse might be dangerous, but if that was different then…

“In the Velvet Room?” Akechi muttered to himself. “It wouldn’t be comfortable, but perhaps it would be possible if I could get a supply of food and water.”

Akira nodded. “Sounds like as good a backup plan as any.” Akechi let his phone screen go dark as Akira stood up again.

“What do you want from me?” Akechi asked suddenly.

Akira looked back at him in confusion, feeling Morgana brush past him as he returned to his lookout spot. “For you to stop hurting people. I thought I made that clear already?”

“Yes, but why in this way? You could have got what you wanted by destroying me.”

“At this point, that doesn’t feel like justice. And I’m no Peter Parker.”

Akechi looked away and laid back down, seemingly satisfied with his answer for now. It was only when Akira turned his attention back to his bed that he realised Ryuji had stopped snoring at some point. He climbed over him to get back in, then touched his forehead between his shoulder blades.

Ryuji pressed a foot back and it ended up draped over one of his. They couldn’t talk here. But this was enough for now.

* * *

Makoto rubbed her eyes as she leaned against the wall next to the door to Leblanc’s bathroom. It was very early, and she’d already been up for a while. Akechi had told her where the spare key to his apartment was and asked her to bring him some essentials. Refusing would have felt petty, and he was obviously short on options when it came to people he could trust to go to his house alone.

Still, he’d seemed happy with her choice of a clean school shirt and underwear, no matter how bizarre going through his clothes had been. She’d brought his comb and correctly guessed his main concern was moisturiser for his face. It was strange to deal with someone who was even more fastidious about his appearance than she was.

“So, you’re still going to school today?” Makoto asked, trying to project her voice and be quiet at the same time. Whether or not she succeeded, he seemed to have heard her through the door.

“Wouldn’t it be stranger if I didn’t show up?” he replied impatiently. She supposed Haru had already brought that up last night. And she suspected he and Kurusu had already had this conversation too.

“Are you really going to be ok?”

The bathroom door opened and he stepped out looking as immaculate as ever. His eyes immediately gravitated to the briefcase she was still holding onto. “I have entrance exams to study for, remember?” he said dryly.

“Are you actually interested in going to Tokyo U, or are you just doing it for the bragging rights?” Makoto asked as she shifted the briefcase so both of her hands were holding its handle, behind her back.

“What does it matter to you?”

“I guess I’ve been thinking about my own studies a lot lately,” she began, trying to have a normal conversation with him for once. But it seemed it wasn’t meant to be.

“I really don’t care,” he said as he held his hand out for the case.

Makoto sighed and closed her eyes as she tried to keep her temper under control. She moved over to the nearest booth table and put the case on it. Predictably, Akechi followed her over.

“Unlock it and give me your gun.”

His eyes immediately narrowed, then his mouth twisted into something that could charitably be called a smile. “That’s very illegal, you know.” His demeanour seemed to return to normal after a moment. “If I stop doing my second job I might have to deal with Shido’s men. Are you going to make me do that unarmed?”

“It’s not like it’d help you in a surprise attack,” Makoto said sharply. “If things get that bad, I can always give it back. But right now you’re still more of a threat to us than they are to you, right?”

He didn’t look impressed, but he didn’t argue either. She politely looked away as he put the combination into the lock and opened it. He removed the false bottom and she saw that Ann had been right about the gun and ammunition.

Makoto immediately grew nervous when he picked it up, but he only angled it to show her it wasn’t loaded before handing it over handle first. She nodded and hastily put it in her schoolbag.

Maybe the fact she also carried a fake gun with her would actually make it seem less suspicious if she was found out.

“All right then, I suppose I’ll see you later,” Makoto said awkwardly as he locked his case back up. It seemed he still had confidential case files in it alongside his schoolwork. She hesitated to step away when he kept staring at her. “What?”

“Thank you for agreeing to get my things this morning,” he said quickly. She supposed his unusual awkwardness meant this was supposed to be a sincere expression of gratitude.

“Well… I wanted to check on you for myself anyway,” she admitted quietly. Before he could add anything else, she nodded curtly and made her way over to the door.

She got the feeling this was going to be far from the last time she’d be involved with metaverse. And given the way Sae had been behaving lately, she didn’t particularly want it to be.


	24. Chapter 24

“You can go home soon?” Ann asked excitedly as she stepped closer to Shiho’s bed.

She nodded with a small smile, letting her feet kick a little and bump against the bed frame. “It might be a while before I can go to school full time again, but yeah.”

Ann laughed quietly as she wrapped her arms around Shiho. “I’m so happy,” she said softly.

Shiho rested her hands on Ann’s waist as she leaned back a little to look up at her. “So what’s been going on with you? I feel like it’s been ages since we talked properly.”

Ann glanced away, not entirely sure how to answer. So much crazy stuff had happened yesterday, and she still didn’t know whether it was actually going to make Akechi back down or not. Still, Makoto had told her he’d let her take his gun away, so that had to count for something.

“Things might be turning around. The person pressuring me… he’s been disarmed a bit, I guess you can say.”

Shiho nodded, not taking her eyes off her. “Good to hear. But let me know if you need backup.”

Ann laughed again, but smiled gratefully. “Someone’s confident, huh?”

Shiho nodded, expression still serious. “The last few months have been awful. But I feel like I faced the worst part of myself and won. So dealing with this asshole should be easy compared to that.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ann murmured.

It seemed Shiho hadn’t needed the metaverse to come to grips with herself. But Ann _had_ had that, and she was still feeling lost. She focused back on Shiho properly when she felt a hand gently come to rest against her cheek.

“Hey, if he does bother you again, tell him your girlfriend will beat him up if he doesn’t cut it out.”

Ann shook her head but couldn’t help giving her a small smile. “If you’re not careful you’re going to end up like Akira-kun.”

“Who?”

Ann blinked for a moment, but then realised Shiho had never met him. It was so strange to look back and see their lives had been that separate for so long.

“Oh, uh, the student who transferred into my class after you…”

Shiho’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “The one with the criminal record?” It seemed she’d had time to hear the rumours in the lead up to his arrival.

“Well, yes, but he’s not the one who’s been bothering me. If anything, he and Ryuji have been helping.” She realised she needed to explain why she’d brought their old classmate up too. “He and Ryuji really hit it off after being a pair of oblivious idiots for a month or so.”

Shiho smiled softly. “I’m glad you’ve been able to make new friends and reconnect with an old one.”

Ann had felt like she’d been desperately running from something for so long that she hadn’t stopped to think about things that way. “Yeah, things have been really different this year. Do you know Haru-sempai?”

Shiho shook her head and Ann did her best to explain the normal teenager things she and Haru had done together without the context of their extortion in the background. For now, Shiho just seemed to be happy to let her talk about something positive.

Though part of her was curious about what Akechi’s reaction would be if she really did threaten him with Shiho’s wrath.

* * *

Akira looked around at the group that had amassed in the study room he’d booked in the local library. He’d told them all they should have the weekend off before they started worrying about what was coming next week. But then Makoto had reminded him that they had exams in little over a week and their palace infiltration debate had quickly devolved into a desperate cramming session.

Akira looked down the table when Ryuji suddenly exclaimed, “You’re a genius!”

Makoto laughed and ran a hand through her hair. “That was all you,” she said as she poked his notebook emphatically.

Ryuji shook his head. “Nah, you should be telling the teachers how to explain things properly.”

“Well, the teachers don’t have as much time to spend with students individually,” she commented as she glanced back at her own notes.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Niijima. It does take someone special to get anything through that thick skull,” Akechi commented as he closed his textbook and started packing his things away.

“Just cos you can’t explain shit,” Ryuji muttered as he leaned forward on the table so he could look past Makoto. “Where’re you going anyway? Rushing off to another murder?”

“I don’t need to waste any more time here today when I’ve already memorised what I need.”

Ryuji narrowed his eyes at him. “How can you be so sure?”

“Near photographic memory.”

“Ain’t that cheating!?”

Things devolved into another silly argument about what constituted cheating, which somehow already felt oddly normal. Of course Akira was still uneasy after everything that had happened, but it was probably good for the two sides of the group to build rapport before they tried doing anything too serious.

“I’d say what’s cheating is asking your talking cat-like friend for help with the answers you’re not sure about,” Morgana interrupted lightly from where he was lying next to Akira’s bag, free from its confines but still hidden from anyone who might glance into the room.

“What!?” Ann and Ryuji demanded loudly at the same time.

Akira looked away and folded his arms, embarrassed. “Nonsense, you’re there for emotional support only.”

“Nuh-uh, I’m way better at structuring long answers than you, and I don’t even need to write myself any notes,” Morgana refuted smugly.

Everyone expressed their amusement at his expense in one way or another. Yusuke smiled without looking up from whatever he was drawing, and even Akechi had a hand carefully positioned in front of his mouth as he looked down at the table.

Haru’s giggles cut through the rest. “Just the other day I overheard a second year complaining that the criminal transfer student was getting better marks than her. If only she knew!”

“Mona! Come to my class instead and I’ll get you fatty tuna!” Ryuji added loudly, making the girls laugh again. Morgana’s ears perked up with interest.

Akira slumped back in his chair and sighed dramatically. “You traitor,” he said as he poked Morgana in his fluffy side. “And you, aren’t you supposed to be defending my honour or something?” he added as he glanced up at Ryuji with half a smile.

Just as Ryuji was about to shoot back with another smartass comment, a phone started ringing and they all fell silent. Akechi muttered something to himself as he pulled it out of his pocket, all traces of any amusement that might have been there now gone.

“I need to take this,” he said as he stood up. But only then did he seem to realise that leaving the room would give him even less privacy. “If you all stay completely silent I’ll put it on speaker.”

Akira glanced at Ryuji before nodding slightly. The others did as well, and he picked up.

“Hello?”

“The deadline for this ‘client’ is non-negotiable,” a gruff voice answered, getting straight to the point. Something about it was oddly familiar, but Akira didn’t have time to get distracted when this could be his only chance to learn something about Shido firsthand.

“I already told you, I can’t—” Akechi began, but he was quickly cut off.

“What do you need to get it done?” he demanded. “Getting your exams pushed back would be a trivial thing. If that’s what the issue is.” His tone was clearly accusatory. Akira didn’t know how Akechi tolerated working with someone who didn’t trust in him. But it seemed the sentiment went both ways.

“I think going to the metaverse so frequently is making me ill,” Akechi said quietly, as though embarrassed to admit it. Akira was sure it was just another attempt at an excuse, but if he didn’t have personal experience in the metaverse to go off he probably would have found it convincing. Akechi was, if nothing else, a good actor. “The last month has been…”

“This needs to be done before the deadline,” Shido pressed again. “I can move things around and give you a month to recover after, but this one is not negotiable.”

Akira watched Akechi’s eyes widen slightly. It seemed he hadn’t expected this lenience and was now running out of excuses.

“I really can’t push it. I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m simply informing you that you will have to either delay this one or find another way to achieve it.”

There was a long moment of silence. “I thought I could rely on you for this much.”

Akechi’s brow creased as he looked down at the table. Akira leaned forward, and the movement got his attention. Akira nodded slightly.

“As I said, I’m trying to be realistic about what I can handle well in advance so you can make alternative arrangements.”

“Useless child!” Shido snapped, the beep of him hanging up bringing the conversation to a sudden end.

“Shitty adult,” Ryuji muttered as he started tapping his pen agitatedly against his notebook.

“Ironic that he would chastise you for being childish while acting so himself,” Yusuke commented from the other end of the table, seeming to have come out of his drawing stupor at last.

Akechi frowned at them, but it was difficult to interpret his expression. Maybe he hadn’t been expecting them to take his side.

“Establishing your boundaries is a mature thing to do,” Makoto added. “I’m sorry you have to put up with that, but we’ll hopefully have a permanent solution soon.”

“I need to go,” he said abruptly, and was out the door before they had a chance to fully register his words. Makoto stood up quickly, abandoning her things as she chased him out the study room door.

There was a long silence inside the room before Ann leaned heavily on the desk and sighed. “I really don’t feel like studying anymore, anyway.”

“Do you ever?” Ryuji teased. Ann ditched her eraser at him, smacking the middle of his forehead with alarming accuracy. “Fuck!” He rubbed his face viciously as he turned to Akira. “Aren’t you supposed to be defendin’ _me_?”

“I didn’t see anything,” Akira said with a carefully straight face.

The others laughed and argued playfully as they packed their things up. Once he had his, and Morgana had leaped into his bag looking a bit sheepish, Akira started gathering up Makoto’s things as well.

“Come over tomorrow,” he said to Ryuji.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” His smile dropped a little when he saw something in Akira’s expression.

“Later,” Akira said quietly before he could ask. Once Ryuji had nodded, Akira left the room with Makoto’s bag and books in his arms.

It seemed the two of them had only made it a few bookshelves away before stopping to talk. But Makoto was now standing there alone, gazing thoughtfully into space. She looked up when he made no effort to dampen the sound of his footsteps.

“Here, my room booking was going to run up soon anyway.”

“Thank you,” she said as she took her bag, then started neatly slotting her things into it.

“Everything ok?”

She glanced at him, then laughed with little humour. “I don’t mean to be rude, Kurusu-kun, but I’d appreciate it if you kept your nose out of this one.” He supposed it shouldn’t feel strange for her to continue using his surname, but he could tell when someone was trying to create distance.

“That might be a bit hard to do given the circumstances, Sempai.”

“Then at least give me a little more time.”

“To sort things out yourself?”

She nodded. “I know he’ll play along until we aren’t useful to him anymore. But if we want him to change, we have to give him a reason to change his goal. And I think I might know what one of the things preventing him doing that are.”

“Alright then, please let me know how you go,” Akira replied with a small nod.

Makoto smiled as she turned to leave. “Right.”


	25. Chapter 25

Goro wasn’t sure how to feel when he saw Makoto waiting for him in front of his building. He briefly considered the merits of moving house again, but then her sharp eyes met his and he was pulled out of his musings. She folded her arms.

“What?” he asked when he was close enough to be heard.

“We need to talk,” Makoto said quietly but firmly.

Goro sighed. “What’s so important that you need to wait around here and risk being harassed by one of my stalkers?”

Makoto frowned, looking concerned for some reason. “Stalker?”

He shook his head. “It happens. But if they become too ridiculous, I just take care of them in the metaverse.”

Makoto massaged her forehead. “ _That_. That is what we need to talk about.”

Unable to be bothered arguing further, Goro simply strode into his apartment building and started scaling the stairs. Makoto followed closely, like some kind of lost puppy.

When they reached his floor he unlocked his door, then stood back as he pushed it open so she could go in ahead of him. Her eyes widened and she took half a step back, and he realised something was wrong.

Goro looked up to see a man was standing just past the entrance way, and tensed when he realised it was the infamous Cleaner who had a gun trained on him.

The man sucked air into his mouth as he shook his head. “Sorry girlie, bad day to come to your boyfriend’s place.”

Goro went to pull her out the way, but Makoto had already reacted. The Cleaner barely had time to finish his sentence and she’d struck out at the hand holding the gun. He guessed she wasn’t normally this reckless, but the fool had just said something that could be interpreted as a threat on her life. She’d probably assumed she had nothing to lose.

The gun clattered to the ground as she stepped forward, tossing him over her hip like he weighed nothing. Once he was face down on the ground she knelt and twisted his wrist up behind him. In that position she’d easily be able to ratchet up the pain if he tried to move too far.

“I’d say it was a good day to go visiting friends, actually,” she replied with a confidence Goro had only seen from her in the metaverse. Her face was a little pink, but he didn’t think it was just from the exertion.

Goro snatched up the gun and turned the safety on before unloading it. Shido sending the Cleaner of all people to deal with him didn’t bode well. But then, he probably wouldn’t have shot without asking questions first. He was largely ignorant of the machinations of the metaverse, so the weapon was likely a precaution more than anything.

But still, Goro doubted he was capable of giving him the answers he wanted to hear anymore. It was likely Makoto had just saved his life. And that made him uncomfortable.

“So, what are we going to do with you?” Goro asked slowly as he circled around to stand in front of them. “Simply allowing you to leave would be asking for trouble.”

“You know, I was going to break off from Shido sooner than later, anyway,” the man replied, surprisingly relaxed given his circumstances. “I won’t mention anything about either of you before I go.”

“Isn’t that convenient,” Goro drawled. “If this was just about me, maybe I’d consider it. But she has no involvement in any of this.”

“We can’t just kill him,” Makoto protested as she watched him take out his phone.

“Oh?” Goro replied as he navigated them to Shido’s palace. They were too far out from the boat for much around them to change other than the water level. “But if we do it here, we won’t leave a trace.”

“No, but Shido will figure out what happened eventually. And then he’ll send someone else.”

Goro turned away from them and went to look out his window. Water lapped at the apartments two storeys down. “Do you think he can swim?”

“Hey!” the Cleaner protested. “I was only going to knock you off if it seemed like your loyalties had changed.”

“Rubbish,” Makoto scoffed before he could. “After everything he’s done, Shido is probably ready to dispose of him the moment he gets what he wants. Not unlike you, probably,” she added, seemingly as an afterthought.

Goro stilled as he contemplated her words. Of course it made sense, but didn’t the sacrifices he’d made and his once unique abilities mean anything? It seemed no matter what he did, his so called ruin was fast approaching. If he continued going after his goal he’d probably be killed. And if he let Kurusu et al do what they wanted, he’d more than likely be executed as a result of Shido growing a conscience or whatever.

It seemed fulfilling the desire that had fuelled him to become something greater over the past few years was becoming less and less likely. But without that, he didn’t know what else there was for him in this world.

“All the more reason to get rid of you now,” he eventually replied. He slid the door to his small balcony open. “You should be ejected back into the real world eventually. If you float…”

Makoto stared at him with wide eyes as he came back over to them. He grabbed one of the Cleaner’s arms and was relieved when Makoto moved with instead of against him.

They pushed the man out onto the balcony and shoved him into the low wall around it. He tried to kick them away when he bent down to grab one of his legs but ultimately he was unsuccessful. They levered his feet into the air, tipping him over the wall.

Makoto watched him fall with a concerned expression, so Goro didn’t navigate them back to the real world immediately. Shortly after splashing down, the Cleaner returned to the surface and clumsily swam back toward the building. He was able to stand on one of the waterlogged balconies below.

“See? He’ll be fine,” Goro said absently before hitting the return function.

Makoto wrung her hands for a moment, but when she could see there was no blood splatter on the pavement below she stepped back inside. She sat on the very edge of his small couch, looking a little shaken. He supposed he couldn’t blame her.

Goro put the kettle on and started setting up the teapot he rarely had anyone over long enough to bother using. “Anyway,” he called over his shoulder. “You came here for a reason?”

Makoto slowly straightened up and nodded. “Right… If Kurusu-kun is interested in helping you get your revenge, why are you so against it? Weren’t you recruiting a team to take down Shido anyway?”

He shook his head. “All of you are still too weak to go anywhere near the boat. Even without the shadows, the cognitive version of me is…” He’d only seen it once, and all it had done was watch him from a distance, but he’d become good at clocking shadows’ abilities. That thing had only given him a bad feeling. “Well, it’d kill you lot just as easily as I would.”

To his surprise, Makoto made a sound of amusement. “So, not _that_ easily, then.”

Goro frowned at her. “Sakura wouldn’t have the home advantage there.”

“The simple fact is we will get stronger over time. You need us to get your revenge, right?”

He didn’t bother arguing about being unable to handle the palace on his own. “I wouldn’t be getting my revenge if Kurusu had his way. I’d just be shooting myself in the foot.”

She frowned and brought a hand to her hair as she thought. “Are you worried Shido’s change of heart would lead to you being implicated?”

“Of course I am,” he replied sharply as he brought the tea things into the living room and poured it out. “Would he even be capable of lying about it at that point? If I’m successfully prosecuted in court, it’s still likely I’d die.”

“Is it? If he takes full responsibility and you’re still considered a juvenile by the law?”

“I’m not willing to take that risk just so you lot can feel better about yourselves.” He paused to drink some of his tea. “Why does any of this matter to you, anyway? No matter what I do, it seems your problem will resolve itself.” Not that he could continue insisting she owed him something now.

Makoto looked down into the teacup in her hands. It took her a while to answer.

“I hope you’re not trying to imply that your death would be a solution to anything,” she began, but quickly moved on when his expression seemed to say he was. “Look, I don’t like to say it out loud because your ego is already a contender for the starring role in the next Godzilla movie, but… you are pretty amazing, you know? You could do so much more than waste your time on Shido and his nonsense. Isn’t it normal to want to see someone like you be truly great?”

“Normal? It sounds like something one of Sakamoto’s rotten adults would say,” Goro protested. But he couldn’t deny that something she’d just said had struck a chord. Of course he wanted to be told all the effort he went to was worthwhile and admirable.

“Don’t be obstinate. It’s normal to want your parents’ approval.” She took another long drink of tea, but wouldn’t meet his eye again. “Or at least an older sibling’s, if that’s not available anymore.”

Was that supposed to mean she was jealous? “What are they really approving of, anyway? That they’ve been able to make you do what they want?”

Makoto sighed deeply. “Maybe.” She paused to drink more of her tea. “If you did kill Shido and got away with it, what would you even do afterward?”

That was the big question. He crossed his legs and leaned away from her slightly.

“If you turned yourself in, that would help lighten your sentence as well.”

His brow creased as he turned to look at her. “Is that what you think I should do?”

“You need to stop. And you need to make up for what you’ve done, and threatened to do. You’re not going to be able to do that if you’re dead.”

There wasn’t exactly a social protocol on how to make up for something like that. But was he really surprised that she had no compunctions with asking him to do the impossible? Feeling defensive again, he changed the subject.

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t spend time alone with a serial killer?”

“It really would be stupid for you to kill me in your own home. And if you were going to do so in the metaverse, you would have already.” She looked away from him again with a frown. “Even if you don’t care about me, I’d at least like to believe you wouldn’t do that to Sae.”

“I’ll do what’s necessary,” he replied flatly, sounding more threatening than he’d intended.

Makoto’s glare intensified suddenly. She stood up quickly and put her hands on her hips. “Excellent, then you agree your goal should change to triggering a change of heart.” When he didn’t answer she leaned closer and raised an eyebrow.

Goro didn’t like the loss of control over the situation, but he knew getting into a physical altercation with her in the real world would be a painful mistake. There was only one thing left up his sleeve. Usually he tried to do the opposite of encouraging it, but this felt different.

Goro carefully softened his expression as he looked up at her. “Makoto,” he said imploringly as he slowly reached a hand out with the intention to touch her face.

To his satisfaction she immediately turned scarlet, but having his hand smacked away was less so. She grabbed his tie and yanked him forward, a mix of fury and mortification in her expression. “Cut the crap,” she snapped, voice a little too high. “Palace. Day after tomorrow.”

He sighed and let the act evaporate. “Fine. I’ll leave you to round up the other clowns.”

Makoto nodded and a different kind of embarrassment seemed to overcome her as she let him go. She washed her cup before mumbling something about going home, and that he shouldn’t stay at the apartment for much longer. He watched her walk back toward the station from his window, making sure she wasn’t going to be harassed by any secret collaborators.

That had been… interesting.


	26. Chapter 26

Akira could tell Ryuji wasn’t actually reading over his notes. At least, he hadn’t turned the page in about ten minutes. While lying on his back on Akira’s bed with a leg propped over his boyfriend’s shoulder probably wasn’t the position most conducive to maintaining his attention span, they were in the midst of exams.

Akira kneaded a hand back down Ryuji’s thigh and didn’t miss the way he pulled at the corner of the blanket to cover his lap. He felt his face heat up a little, but he could still feel there was a strain in the part of the leg he was touching.

“Do you want me to stop?”

Ryuji lowered his notebook so he could glance up at him sheepishly. “Uh, it’s fine, just ignore me.”

“How could I ever?” Akira replied teasingly, but simply continued the same motion over the spot of contention. “Is it feeling any better?”

“Yeah, just been pushing myself too hard.”

Akira nodded. “You need to give yourself time to recover. That was a pretty serious blow you took.”

“Yeah,” Ryuji muttered. “You really going to help that asshole out after everything?”

Akira shrugged the shoulder that didn’t have Ryuji’s leg resting on it. “What’s our alternative? If we tell the cops about his involvement they might not even believe us at first. And I’d rather avoid having that kind of scrutiny and attention on myself at the moment. Not to mention, your and Ann’s involvement in the whole Kamoshida thing.

“But, we can’t just ignore him either. Or the murders and accidents are going to continue.”

“I get that,” Ryuji replied quietly. “But he’s obviously fucking insane. Even if there’s a way to get him to come with us to the palace, isn’t there a chance he’ll use it as an opportunity to get rid of us?”

“It’s possible,” Akira admitted. “If he tries to hurt anyone again, the gloves are definitely off. But if you or anyone else doesn’t want to be involved, that’s ok.”

Ryuji huffed as he put his notes aside, not even bothering to pretend he was studying now. “I’m not going to leave you to deal with this on your own. Thought I made that clear the other day.” He suddenly let his head flop back onto the pillow and exhaled slowly.

Akira let go of his leg and let it slide off his shoulder. “Did I get it?”

“Yeah,” Ryuji muttered before drawing both of his legs in and sitting up on the edge of the bed. Akira swung around as well. “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Akira said quietly. When he saw his phone had a notification he must have missed, he leaned over to grab it. He frowned down at the message as Ryuji pulled his phone out of his pocket too.

_This is Niijima Makoto. Akechi-kun and I are going to the palace the day after exams, probably mid-morning. Let me know if you want to come as well. No pressure._

_And could someone forward this to Kitagawa-kun and Futaba-chan please?_

It seemed the message had been sent out to the group at large. “I’ll do it,” Akira said, glad to find it seemed he was permitted to use Futaba’s number now. She must have woken up and changed something.

“How the hell did miss goody two shoes convince him to do that?” Ryuji asked as he typed his own answer to her. “And why does she have my freaking phone number?”

“Akechi?” That didn’t explain how she had his, but he guessed the school had it in their records somewhere.

Ryuji shrugged. “Should I invite Mum too? She can kick him in the head again if he’s a nuisance.”

Akira snorted. “If you want. It probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to have more people there, if she’s up for it.”

Ryuji pressed his thigh against Akira’s for a moment, but then they both jumped as Sojiro’s voice floated up the stairs. “I’m closing up now! Don’t you two have exams tomorrow?”

“Ok!” Akira called back, knowing he was really just asking Ryuji to leave. Ryuji got to his feet and put his blazer back on. “Good luck tomorrow,” Akira said.

“Yeah, you too man,” he replied unenthusiastically.

Akira stood up as Ryuji grabbed his bag. He paused when Akira put a hand on his arm, then turned his head when he leaned closer.

The kiss was short and chaste. Ryuji smiled at him sheepishly after.

“Good night.”

* * *

Akira stared around cautiously as they entered the metaverse. He was on high alert after this palace had been talked up so much. He soon spotted Akechi and Makoto sitting next to each other on the edge of a deckchair. It seemed the group’s appearance had interrupted their conversation.

“Sorry we’re late,” Akira called as he approached, watching them both stand up quickly.

“Looks like you had to wait for quite the crowd to gather,” Makoto said with a small nod. “Even more than I was expecting.”

Akira looked over his shoulder at the others. Ryuji and Misaki were standing off to one side. Yusuke had wandered off to the end of what seemed to be the cruise ship to take in the bizarre scenery. Ann, Morgana and Haru were standing close together behind him. Meanwhile, Futaba had become his shadow. She smiled nervously up at him when he looked at her.

“Haru doesn’t want to be involved in the fighting unless it’s absolutely necessary. Misaki-san is Ryuji’s mother.”

“Um, nice to meet you all,” Misaki said, looking awkward. He guessed hanging out with a gang of teenagers wasn’t her first choice in activity. Particularly when one of them had been fully intent on killing both her and her child not so long ago.

“Oh!” Makoto said, clearly surprised. “It’s nice to meet you,” she replied formally.

The others murmured their responses, sounding surprised as well. Ann walked over to the pair of them and gawked at her.

“What? They got Ryuji out from under his thumb by awakening your Persona?”

“Yeah! And she knocked him on his ass too!” Ryuji bragged.

“It’s only because we would have died otherwise,” Misaki replied sheepishly, fiddling with the edge of the mask that was pushed off her face for the time being.

Akechi folded his arms and looked away. “And you’ll need to do that over and over if you’re all really so foolish as to come here and fight shadows this powerful. So can we hurry things up already?”

“No need to be so salty about it,” Ryuji mocked, but he did start making his way toward the doors. Ushimaru’s murderous intent really had nothing on whatever Akira was feeling coming from Akechi right now.

“Hurry up Inari!” Futaba called, and Yusuke reluctantly turned back to them.

The group followed Akechi as he walked through the ship’s deck with a level of familiarity that Shido would probably find worrying if he could see them. It took a while for them to reach their first shadow, but when they did, it quickly became obvious that Akechi hadn’t been exaggerating at all.

Fortunately he was able to warn them about the kinds of incoming attacks they could expect, and therefore hash out some of their weaknesses early on as well. But by the time they reached the door that required letters of recommendation, everyone except Akechi was completely exhausted.

“What the hell is wrong with this guy if his shadows are this tough?” Ryuji complained loudly.

“It only gets worse from here,” Akechi began, but was cut off by someone talking over the top of him.

“That’s something we’d all like to know, isn’t it?”

Akira felt himself physically start when he saw the source of the teasing tone seemed to be… Akechi? He looked between the one clad in a school uniform and a plain black masquerade mask, and the one beside them in his usual metaverse attire.

“This is what you were talking about?” Makoto asked suddenly.

“It looks different to the last time I saw it,” Akechi replied. The fact seemed to disgust him a little. “I suppose my recent actions have simultaneously made him trust me less and see me as more juvenile.”

Did that mean this being was some reflection of Shido’s thoughts about him?

“If the Cleaner is still stuck here, I don’t think his perception of your abilities would have lessened, though,” Makoto said with some trepidation. Akira supposed he’d have to ask them more about what that meant later.

“So, what’s all this supposed to be?” the other Akechi interrupted. “You found a way to spread your powers to other people? For an assassination attempt?”

The way Akechi looked away was a clear indication of his discomfort. Akira guessed it was because of how aware Shido seemed to be of his original plan.

“Something like that,” Akechi said carefully.

“Then I suppose I’d better do something about that. It’s not like I could ever turn down a figurative belly rub from him,” the cognition replied, sounding far too bright and cheery. Its fake smile didn’t falter as it pulled out its gun.

“You should all go,” Akechi said as he drew his sword with a flourish. “This is exactly what I was warning you about.”

Makoto moved to stand next to him and adopted her preferred fighting stance. “Can you really deal with this on your own?”

“Given how tired you all are already, I’m going to have to, aren’t I?” he replied sharply.

“I can still go,” Futaba said, sounding offended. Her Persona swallowed her up a moment later. Given the disaster their last palace attempt had ended in, Akira hadn’t even realised she had one until afterward. “And someone has to watch Akira’s back, since he obviously isn’t going to leave either.”

To Akira’s surprise, there seemed to be a general consensus around this statement among the others. It seemed that if they weren’t concerned about him directly, than someone they were was.

“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s right, anyone who’s tired needs to back off now,” he protested.

Before they could continue arguing, the cognitive being adopted a manic grin. “Aaand time’s up! Guess I’ll be rid of the small fry first.” Before they really had a chance to process his statement, the gun came up and its contents were immediately unloaded in their direction.

Misaki pushed Ryuji out the way so she’d take the hit. Once again it looked like her Persona nulled out metaverse gunshots.

“You didn’t think I was going to watch that happen again, did you?” she demanded as she swaggered forward and put the bokken over her shoulder. “You aren’t the only one here who’s ever had an enforcer type of role.”

“Wait a sec…” Ryuji began quietly. “ _That’s_ why we have that old bokken in our house? You beat the shit out of people for your gang?”

Misaki’s shoulders hunched over a little. “Only girls in opposing gangs!”

Akira looked over the writing on the arms and back of her coat again. It seemed to be a mix of words rather than any coherent sort of sentence or statement. The most prominent were ‘anarchy’, ‘love’ and ‘justice’.

He guessed she’d thought it was justified at the time.

The cognitive being interrupted them once again, still looking entertained by them. “Well then, if you have so much experience being aggressive in a group, you must surely know how difficult it is for multiple people to attack one target at the same time. Lucky me!”

“Perhaps that is true,” Makoto interrupted. “If you’re using physical only.” A nuclear explosion blossomed around their enemy. But he was too fast and jumped out of range just in time.

Haru moved to the front of their little crowd with her axe at the ready. “Please allow me to help take care of the physical, Makoto-san.” On the surface she sounded as sweet as ever, but something in her tone made the hairs on the back of Akira’s neck stand up.

“Well, if that’s how it’s going to be…” the other Akechi began. A pair of shadows rose up on either side of him and immediately charged toward them.

Akira hoped this wasn’t going to end up being as much of a mess as last time. But right now it seemed pretty likely.


	27. Chapter 27

Goro watched the others split into teams as directed by Kurusu’s knowledge of the enemy and his Persona arsenal. It should do. If they could all stay on their feet long enough.

Okumura had an unexpectedly vicious look on her face when she finally managed to land a blow on his copy, but it wasn’t like he could fault her for it. The copy soon recovered and kicked her away, making her stumble back. Goro took his chance to dive forward with his sword swinging, getting there before it could let off a follow up shot.

Thanks to metaverse logic, it managed to block the blade with its gun.

“Do you really think you’re going to be able to beat me like _that_?” it mocked before they separated again. Goro wound up another slash and felt his Persona fortify as he did so. Makoto must have cast something to help protect them.

One of his slashes was effective, and left a streak of red up its torso. But it didn’t seem to be particularly bothered. He guessed it only looked vicious because Shido had no idea what really went on in the metaverse in terms of the actual fighting.

Goro staggered back when it returned the favour by shooting him in the face multiple times, but at that point Sakamoto senior had taken over. Her Persona charged forward, missing the copy but still forcing it to give them some space.

Goro knew he had to slow it down. But the only way for him to do that was to bring out…

But not only did he not want to show his full hand to Kurusu and his lot, he also wasn’t sure if it was even the best idea when he was fighting in a group. Especially when it was a group he wasn’t particularly fond of.

“Morgana is down! Panther, go help Akira-kun and the others!” Makoto ordered from behind him. He glanced back to see she was kneeling on the ground, arms wrapped around herself like she was in pain. But she was sitting back and watching the three fights, making accurate assessments as far as he could tell.

When he turned and took a few steps closer, she looked up at him. “Are you all right?” he asked.

Makoto glanced down. Clearly the answer was ‘no’.

“I’m saving my strength in case something awful happens.” She nodded in the direction of his copy. “You need to get back to that fight, the other two aren’t going to last much longer at this rate.”

He straightened and looked in their direction. He threw a light spell into the mix, but even though it hit, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the copy. He supposed that was as obvious a sign as any that he thought he was in the right no matter what.

Or, he once had?

“Um, also… If you’re holding back, now probably isn’t the time,” she added quietly. “If whatever you’ve been avoiding showing us is going to be helpful here, then just do it.”

Goro nodded in agreement even as his concern rose. Was whatever was growing between them going to be squashed if she saw that? Or perhaps he’d simply become someone else’s weapon to point at things.

But he supposed it was a little late to be worrying about that kind of thing.

Goro walked toward the copy as he sheathed his sword. He wasn’t going to need it.

“Persona!”

* * *

Akira felt Ryuji reach out blindly for his arm as the pair of shadows they were fighting suddenly turned to rip into each other. He managed to take hold of him just as the dog-like shadow ripped into the throat of the human-like one, and he squeezed impossibly tight.

“What the actual fuck?” Ryuji demanded faintly.

The remaining shadow turned abruptly and aggressively sprinted in the direction of the fake Akechi. Akira could see the real one had _changed_ again, and this time the associated Persona was floating over him freely. It glowed red in much the same way as the shadows, making it obvious what had caused the sudden change in their behaviour.

The shadow dived in the fake’s direction, teeth bared. But somehow a roundhouse kick was enough to drop it, and a few more shots of the gun made it dissipate.

“Did you think that was going to be enough?” it mocked lightly, despite the fact it was breathing heavily now.

“It served its purpose,” Akechi replied darkly before his Persona slammed its sword down. The copy spun out of the way just in time, and the sword smashed into the floor, only stopping once it’d penetrated to the hilt.

For the first time since the fight had started, the fake’s smile slipped. If that managed to hit it, Akira was sure it’d be finished.

“Missed me,” the fake spat as it pushed its hair out of its eyes.

“I got a little ahead of myself there,” Akechi replied, but it didn’t sound like it made a difference to him. The copy shuddered as his Persona cast something on it, and its eyes widened. “One more?”

“You’re just a tool that’s outlived its usefulness!” the copy yelled, its desperation obvious now. It knelt to steady its aim, then fired shot after shot.

Akechi didn’t bother trying to dodge out the way, or even to defend himself. He just stood there and laughed, his manic tone steadily increasing. Eventually the copy’s gun clicked uselessly, all its ammunition seemingly used up. It paled, and the gun barrel jerked as it visibly trembled.

“Well, I can give you that one. You’re not wrong!” The red aura rose around Akechi again, but this time he didn’t seem to have a target. After a moment, Akira realised he must be targeting himself.

The sword was wrenched from the ground with a worrying screech. But it wasn’t nearly as concerning as the sound Akechi made as he drove it into his copy. Akira was glad he only had to see the aftermath at a distance. The copy finally dissipated into darkness.

Akechi turned to face them, still looking on edge as his gaze passed over each of them. But Akira knew none of them were in any state to move far, let alone fight back against something like that.

“Come here,” Makoto spoke up suddenly from where she was still kneeling on the floor. She made a beckoning motion at Akechi when he continued standing there. After a beat of silence he strode over, still moving like a predator.

Ryuji shifted next to Akira, but he wasn’t quite game enough to actually get involved. Much to Akira’s relief. But when Akechi reached Makoto he simply knelt down to the same level. His mask reappeared as his Persona and the sword faded.

“All of you, get closer. I can’t do anything when you’re so far apart.”

Of course everyone hesitated. Akira moved over to Morgana and changed his Persona so he could revive him. He picked Morgana up, who was still looking a bit dazed, and then he finally made his way over.

At that, the others seemed to snap out of it and cautiously followed him over.

“Obviously our goal is the exit,” Makoto said as she took hold of one of Akechi’s hands in both of hers. “But there’s a chance we’ll be harassed by more shadows on our way out. I can barely move, so I’ll heal you all and rely on you to get me out of here.”

Before any of them could disagree, the healing effect was already washing over them. Akira was still exhausted, but at least he could move around properly now.

Makoto sighed softly before pitching forward. Akechi caught her against his shoulder before taking a glove off to check her pulse. “She’s fine. I think she just fainted,” he reported.

“Um, shouldn’t we get out of here then?” Ann asked nervously, twirling a finger through her hair.

“Right!” Morgana said, getting back to his usual bossy self. “We need to approach this like thieves, so stay hidden.”

“I’ll take point. The rest of you follow up when it seems safe,” Akira said quickly. Not all of them wore attire particularly suited to sneaking around. Futaba’s even had LEDs embedded into it.

“And if we do encounter anything, leave me to take care of it,” Akechi added as he stood up, helping Makoto back to her feet. She leaned against him heavily, but it seemed she was going to stay conscious for now.

“Then let’s go,” Akira said quietly.

* * *

Makoto usually tried to avoid drinks with too much caffeine and sugar, but Akechi had been right about the fact it’d make her feel better after all that. She didn’t want to think about why he knew that so well.

They’d returned to her place, too paranoid that Shido would somehow know they’d been to his palace and act again. Akechi would have to return home for his clothes and other things eventually, but it couldn’t be safe now. Makoto didn’t know what Sae’s reaction would be if they asked whether he could stay with them over the summer, but honestly, she was at work so much these days it’d probably take her weeks to notice he was even there.

Either way, for tonight, Sae had sent a message earlier saying she’d already come to pick some things up and that she wouldn’t be home until morning.

Makoto looked up at Akechi when she finally had enough energy to wonder why he was just standing over her instead of sitting down somewhere. “What’s the matter?”

He started at her voice and blinked a few times as his eyes returned to her, and seemingly to reality. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Makoto hummed as she glanced around. “You’re going to have to help me out with this one a bit more,” she teased gently. “Why don’t you come sit down?”

He rocked his weight from one foot to the other and his brow drew in slightly. “If you want me to leave, you don’t have to be polite about it. You aren’t personally responsible for me.”

“Why would I want that?” Makoto asked, tilting her head in confusion. “You saved us.”

“From what, myself?” he snapped, then immediately looked down. “Sorry.”

“Shido’s conception of you,” she corrected firmly, standing up as well. She didn’t think it had much effect given how he towered over her anyway.

He looked away from her and crossed his arms loosely. Defensively. He looked defeated.

“Look, I know my true self is… But I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t…”

Makoto felt her eyes widen as she thought she realised what he was getting at. She pressed against his elbows, and he let her guide him to sit down on the couch.

“I’m not going to abandon you. If you choose to change, then I’ll do what I can to support you. If you don’t… well, I think you know better than me how that’s going to end. I know Akira-kun and the others have their plans, but it’s still up to you how you’re going to involve yourself in all of that.”

Makoto shook her head as she tried to put what she wanted to say into the right words, knowing this was important. She hoped she’d read the situation correctly.

“I’m not trying to take you away from Shido because I want to use you for my own ends. I just want you to realise you’re free to choose your own path again. Even if it doesn’t end the way I want it to.” She slowly moved to sit down beside him, realising that standing over him probably wasn’t helping to reinforce the message she was trying to get across.

He turned to face her as she moved, even if he still wouldn’t look at her. Makoto grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him in until he’d given up on trying to maintain his balance and fallen against her.

Makoto shuffled around awkwardly until his head was on her chest and both of her arms and legs were wrapped around him. She let out the breath she’d been unconsciously holding when his arms wrapped around her waist.

“Makoto,” he said softly between harsh breaths.

She tucked her chin as she felt her eyes tear up in response. But somehow she didn’t think he’d mind if it got in his hair this time.

“Goro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is near...!


	28. Chapter 28

Summer holidays starting was a relief, and learning that his exam scores had somehow remained steady was too. Akira didn’t really expect to be doing much relaxing, but not having to spend so many hours at, or commuting to and from, school should make things easier.

Akira was in the café doing dishes when the door swung open and Futaba made a beeline for him. Sojiro did a double take when he saw her.

“Hey Sojiro,” she greeted before pulling up a chair.

“H-hey… Sorry, I’m still not used to seeing you walk around outside by yourself,” he admitted. “Did you get hungry or something?”

“Did you make curry?” Futaba asked immediately.

Sojiro sighed. “You have to eat something else _sometimes_.”

Futaba’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Sojiro shook his head, but moved over to the kitchen to serve a plate of leftovers anyway. Akira drained the sink and turned around, pleasantly surprised to find a plate had been put down for him too.

“What are you so shocked about? Anything that’ll stop you from breaking into my house again,” Sojiro commented dryly.

Akira and Futaba glanced at each other sheepishly. “It’s not really breaking in if I invited him,” she said quietly around a mouthful of food.

Sojiro sighed and massaged his forehead. “Why did you invite him over anyway? He was still a stranger to you, right?”

“I needed the pink SD card, Sojiro! The pink one!” Futaba exclaimed like it should be obvious. “Also, well… I was getting lonely, I guess.”

“I see,” he replied quietly. “Well, I’m glad you made a friend. Even if I have no idea how _he_ made so many in such a short amount of time. Even with a minor celebrity.”

“Coincidence,” Akira said a little too quickly. Thankfully, Sojiro seemed to be willing to leave it there.

“All right, well, don’t go getting into any more trouble.”

They finished their meal in relative silence. Sojiro raised an eyebrow when Futaba said she was going to stay a while longer.

“Don’t give me that look! We have important business to discuss!”

Akira wondered if the only reason he left without further teasing was that Sojiro was very well aware he had a boyfriend.

When they were alone, Akira turned to Futaba. “So, what’s this important business?”

“Well, we need to deal with this Shido thing as soon as possible, right? Definitely before you all go back to school. So we’re going to need a training and earnings plan!”

“Training and earnings?”

“You saw that guy’s shadows and cognitions! If we’re going to fight him, we’re going to need the good shit! And that costs money.”

“You mean like pink SD cards?” Akira asked, bringing a finger to his chin. Futaba smacked his arm and he cracked, letting out a little laugh. “Well, we shouldn’t overdo it with the training, either. And Morgana did want us to try and get to the bottom of Mementos originally, so attempting that every two to three days is probably a good way to build ourselves up.”

Futaba nodded enthusiastically. Suddenly her expression switched to something more thoughtful. “Oh, and don’t forget about Yusuke. You should make sure he’s ok.”

Ah, right. They’d basically left him to flee his mentor. Maybe the man would take more drastic action to ruin his future if he didn’t go home soon.

“Hmm, shouldn’t you go do that?” Akira teased. To his surprise Futaba actually blushed.

“I was gonna _help_ , obviously,” she mumbled as she turned away from him.

“All right, let’s meet with the others and discuss what they want our goals to be. With so many of us, we could split into teams and do more than one thing at a time,” Akira mused.

“Do _not_ stick me in the same team as Mister Psycho.”

Akira raised a brow. “Why are you assuming I’m the one who’d decide who goes where?” Of course he expected the only person who’d actually want to go with Akechi was Makoto. And maybe Yusuke would be relatively unbothered since he hadn’t suffered at his hands directly.

“Uh, I dunno? Guess I just assumed you were the one in charge. I think most of us only stayed back there because you did.”

Akira rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “It’s not my place to tell anyone what to do.”

Futaba shrugged slightly. “I think we all prefer that approach. Everyone has their own reasons for what they’re doing, and they’re not afraid to make that clear.”

Akira felt a small smile cross his face. “I guess you’re right.”

* * *

Makoto had said they should meet up somewhere totally different, but Akira hadn’t been expecting that to mean Ueno Park in the middle of a downpour. At least it was unlikely they’d be seen or overheard, even if their large group did stand out.

“It’s so fucking humid,” Ryuji complained as he optimistically flapped a hand in front of his face. “So what the hell are you wearing?”

Akechi’s eyebrows drew down as he gave Ryuji a once over. “If one of us should have their fashion choices questioned, it certainly isn’t me.”

“Ryuji,” Akira interrupted before their fight could escalate. He pulled out the folded up piece of paper he’d quickly scrawled his plan for the meeting on, and made a show of unfolding and scrutinising it. “Arguing with Akechi over the merits of wearing a sweater vest in the middle of summer is, surprisingly, not on the agenda.”

Ryuji snorted. “Come on man, how could you forget something like that?” Some of the others laughed at their silly exchange, releasing the tension a little.

“Anyway, onto our first point of business,” Akira teased.

He noticed Akechi stiffen a little. Makoto wrapped an arm around his, and his weight seemed to shift back ever so slightly.

“Yusuke.”

Yusuke looked just as surprised as everyone else. “Me?”

“Do you still want us to change your sensei’s heart? Because if we’re going to, now is probably a good time.”

Yusuke looked away, conflicted. “I… I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s going to be necessary anymore. I’m out of his grasp, and more of his victims are coming forward with each passing week. It’ll only be a matter of time before the truth comes to light. And I am a key witness to it all.”

“If you, well, want to practice giving a testimony in a hostile court environment, I can probably ask my sister to cross examine you like his defence attorney will,” Makoto offered quietly. “Or if you’re just giving a statement and want to be familiar with the process first, maybe…” Makoto glanced at Akechi.

It seemed to take him a moment to realise his services were being offered up, but he nodded. “I don’t usually do interviews or interrogations, but I could try to help.”

“Thank you both. I will think about it and let you know.”

Akira nodded and continued. “Ok then, before we move on from the topic of palaces, is anyone else dying to resolve anything?”

Makoto looked at the ground, but Haru was the one who spoke up. “To be honest, I was going to ask. My father is set on marrying me off to a disgusting man. At first I was just going to go along with it, but I really can’t stand him, nor the thought of spending the rest of my life with someone so awful!”

“What’s your fiancé’s name?” Akira asked as he reached for his phone. The others did the same when it returned a positive response. “Looks like he’s in Mementos, on a level that’s deeper than I’ve ever been. It’ll be a good goal for us while we’re training.”

“So, you’re definitely going then?” Akechi interrupted. They all knew he wasn’t talking about Mementos.

“Were you hoping to convince us not to?” Akira asked calmly.

“Maybe. But I will come with you to the palace.” He looked down and sighed. “I’ll help you weaken Shido so you can do whatever it is you need to change his heart. Then, when he starts confessing everything in the real world, I’ll turn myself in.”

They were all surprised by his intentions, but none of them more than Makoto. “Is that what _you_ want to do, Goro?”

“Want? No, of course not. But we’ve all seen what happens when I get what I want.” He twisted the umbrella handle in his left hand. “It is what I need to do, though.”

“As long as you came to that conclusion yourself,” Makoto replied quietly.

“You ain’t going to admit to the Kamoshida stuff, right?” Ryuji asked hesitantly as he scratched the back of his head.

“As much as I’m glad you’re finally being honest, that could be a problem for us,” Ann agreed.

“I doubt it would change my sentence all that much at this point,” Akechi replied. “I suppose it depends on how the pair of you treat me over the next six weeks.”

Ann and Ryuji glanced at each other, alarmed.

“That was… supposed to be a joke. Of course I won’t say anything unnecessary about anything I made one or more of you help me with. I’m sure you all have something better to do than serve a sentence for being coerced into assisting with murder under duress.”

“Are you serious?” Haru demanded. “We’d still normally be convicted in these circumstances?”

“It depends,” he replied with a shrug. “Will they give us adequate time to explain what the metaverse is, and how imminent the threat I was holding over your head was? Will the judge or jury sympathise with you? Can your lawyer present things in just the right way to tip the scales in your favour?

“For you lot the risk would simply be whether you spend a few years in jail or walk free. For me it’s either several decades or death. Or worse, several decades waiting to be put to death. Though perhaps having made a spectacle of myself will save me from that fate.”

Makoto put a hand over her mouth. “It’s no wonder Sae’s…”

“Is there something else?” Akira asked gently. If he remembered correctly, that was her sister’s name.

Makoto hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t think my sister is beyond being reasoned with yet. Let’s just focus on the mystery of Mementos, and on Shido.”

“Don’t be shy about letting us know if anything changes. But if there’s nothing else, then should we discuss a training schedule? And how we’re going to spend our earnings?” he added when Futaba shifted slightly.

“Pink SD cards!” she yelled, making the mistake of flicking her umbrella upward as she did so.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t have pinned you as someone who appreciates the cutesy aesthetic,” Yusuke commented while everyone else either looked baffled by their inside joke, or were busy trying to dodge the sudden flick of water.

Akira hoped all of them could keep their camaraderie up for the final push, and for whatever consequences there would be beyond that.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so, we’re timeskipping the 6 weeks because this is already more than long enough and let’s be honest, it’d just be like 10 chapters of Makoto/Goro anyway (something probably best written separately to this…) So hopefully the off-screen character development isn’t jarring.

_“On behalf of Akechi Sadako, I’m coming to get you.”_

On reflection, that had been a little dramatic. Even for him.

Over the phone Shido had sounded mostly unaffected, but Sakura had done him the favour of transferring a clip she’d taken using his webcam. Her caption describing him as being about to wet himself couldn’t be said to be _in_ accurate.

According to the cat, that was a good sign it had worked well enough to make his treasure appear. Apparently the effect wouldn’t last long, but there was no turning back for him now anyway. If he did nothing, he’d simply be on the run from hitmen in the real world for however long he managed to survive.

And so would some or all of the others, given enough time.

For now he was still holed up in the Velvet Room, waiting for the others to be done with school. Staying for such long periods of time had been a strange experience, but he had timers set to remind him when to eat, and of how much time had passed in the real world.

Once he left he didn’t intend to return. So predictably, today was the day the twins came to retrieve him.

Goro remained in his seat with his legs crossed and his cheek resting against his palm when the familiar banging on the door started up. It seemed a little less insistent than usual.

“Are you ready yet?” Caroline called.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said slowly.

“Excuse me?” Justine began before she was drowned out by her twin’s sound of indignation.

The door swung open, but his things didn’t disappear. His appearance didn’t change, either. The two of them looked less surprised by this than he was.

“Can’t change other people’s hearts, but he can change his own,” Caroline managed to say both loudly and under her breath.

“Isn’t it better for his rehabilitation this way?” Justine asked.

“But our master said…”

Goro sat up straight and frowned at them. “This was meant to be the result of my ‘rehabilitation’? How would changing hearts have helped in the slightest? Shido probably would have only become even more interested in my power.”

Or maybe he would have accidentally changed the heart of the wrong person and the entire conspiracy ring would have been thrown under the bus. The more he examined his own circumstances, the more they seemed to be rigged.

“Then what did make you change your attitude?” Justine asked softly.

He didn’t know if it had. But the fire in his gut had calmed over the past few months. For a while he’d worried it had gone out altogether again, but talking to the others had made him realise it was still smouldering.

Even if tempering his wrath was impossible, he could at least aim it more precisely and purposefully. Like maybe he was willing to believe for a moment that Kurusu wasn’t entirely full of shit when he said there was more to the world than what had been dumped on him so far.

“Some imbeciles who don’t know when to quit,” Goro eventually answered.

“Oh, so you made some likeminded friends, then,” Caroline snapped. But she was smiling.

“Something like that.”

Though his future had never been filled with so much uncertainty, he’d also never been so certain that there would be something post-Shido. What that was, exactly, would soon be out of his hands. But between Makoto and Kurusu he didn’t think he’d have to worry about dying, at least.

That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be plenty of work to be done.

But he was no stranger to that.

* * *

Akira stretched his hands above his head then rolled out his shoulders as he followed the others into the conspicuous treasure room. As expected, Shido’s shadow was there waiting for them, guarding it himself.

“You’ve gathered quite the crowd,” he commented as he stared down at them imperiously. “But I’d hazard they’re not connected to you by choice.”

“Obviously,” Akechi replied neutrally. There was some tension in his stance, but his folded arms were more or less relaxed.

“Maybe not in the beginning, but…” Makoto said with a wry smile as she stepped forward to stand beside him.

Shido narrowed his eyes at her, but he didn’t seem to be sure of how to attack her. He turned his attention to Haru instead.

“If you really can make me confess to my every crime, then you do realise that I will be implicating your father for commissioning everything from property damage to murder... don’t you?”

Haru’s eyes widened slightly. She nervously traced the seams of one of her gloves as she looked away.

“While he didn’t complain when someone happened to die, he certainly never asked for that specifically,” Akechi corrected. “In the end it’ll probably be his company that gets punished for engaging in uncompetitive behaviour.”

Haru swallowed. “Even if he did, not stopping you now would only lead to you continuing to fulfil disgusting people’s awful wishes,” she snapped.

Shido’s eyes narrowed and he turned to his next target. “You’re the Isshiki girl, aren’t you? Are you really going to help the person who murdered your mother?”

“Obviously not,” Futaba said sharply. “But Haru’s right, we’ve got to remove the root cause before the rest can be dealt with.”

“And how do you intend to deal with that? Nothing is going to bring your mother back.”

Futaba wrapped her arms around herself, but she didn’t back off. “He’s responsible for deciding to follow orders like that, but it was you and the other assholes that work for you that really did a number on me. That’s what nearly made me self-destruct.” She shook her head slightly. “The way I see it, the only real way to make up for something like that is to change and not do it to anyone else.”

“How juvenile,” Shido sneered.

“Isn’t that the other way around?” Akira commented offhandedly.

This brought Shido’s glare onto him. He seemed to pause for a moment, assessing him and the way most of the others stood around him.

“You think so? I’d say what’s childish is following extreme orders in exchange for the mere promise of attention and affection.” Shido gave Akechi a significant look, but he refused to react. “Really, if I had have known that half the teenagers in Tokyo shared this power, I would have chosen someone who is of no relation. So if any of you are ready to grow up, now is the time to accept my offer.”

“You don’t recognise me?” Akira asked when this time Akechi had more of a reaction. He had to keep him distracted, and this was the best thing he had. Of course, he only knew about it because Futaba had ‘followed the money’ around his case.

“Should I?” Shido mocked.

Akira practically felt Ryuji tense up beside him. He shrugged nonchalantly, hoping a lack of reaction would get him to relax. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’ll all come pouring out of your mouth soon enough.”

“Hold on. He’s the reason you even got sent here?” Akechi interrupted, eyes narrowing as he put the last few pieces together.

Akira nodded. It really was almost like something had driven them to meet. But they had to deal with what was in front of them before they could speculate about something like that.

Akechi made an odd sound, something on the edge of hysteria. “And you’re sure you don’t want me to…?”

“Please tell me that’s just an off-colour joke,” Akira said more casually than he felt.

“…Sure.”

Akira side-eyed him as best he could with his mask in the way. But he didn’t think they had anything to worry about at this point.

“Let’s do it!” Morgana called and they all moved into the planned formation.

Shido transformed, and suddenly there wasn’t time to think.

* * *

The fight had been anticlimactic, in the end. They had almost over prepared, and even without Misaki their sheer numbers meant they were able to tag in and out of the main fight as needed.

So when Shido’s shadow returned to its normal form and dropped to its knees, a barely hurt Akechi was standing over him with his gun drawn before any of them could react. Shido actually looked scared this time.

“Goro!” Makoto exclaimed in a tone that was some mix of hurt and confused.

He briefly glanced back at her with a blank expression before turning his attention back to the man in question. “Well? Aren’t you going to beg for your life?”

Shido huffed and grimaced. “If things can’t go back to the way they were before, then there’s no point. What would I be living for? An execution at a later date?”

“Nothing you want to say to try and convince me to not let them change your heart?”

Shido smacked his hands against the ground. “What’s the point, you little shit!? Don’t think you can toy with me when all you’ve done is repeatedly prove yourself useless! How is it my fault your whore mother didn’t abort you when she had the chance!?”

Akira started forward at his words, but he already knew there wasn’t time to do anything to stop him. Futaba rose into the air in her Persona, seemingly aiming for the treasure in the hope she’d be able to get it out before any permanent damage could be done.

But as Ryuji bolted past him it became clear they didn’t have anything to worry about after all. Well, maybe that was an overstatement given the hysterical nature of Akechi’s sudden burst of laughter, but when he flicked the gun’s safety on and flipped it over in his hand, it became apparent he at least wasn’t going to fire.

Akechi threw the gun and Shido swore loudly when it bounced off the middle of his forehead.

“If you have any balls you’ll shoot yourself before it’s too late!” Akechi dramatically pointed up at the theft going on above their heads. “The second they get that out of here you’re done for anyway.”

Shido’s hand inched toward the gun, but suddenly Ryuji was there, kicking it out of reach. Relieved, Akira let himself hesitate for a moment. Somehow he doubted all of them crowding around was going to calm anyone down.

Still, the way the ship was shuddering was nerve-wracking.

“Ok man, you’ve made your point. We’ve gotta bounce,” Ryuji said as he looked up at the treasure as it flew overhead.

But Akechi only took another step forward and spat on Shido. Akira rushed forward and grabbed one of his sleeves as Ryuji shifted to stand between him and Shido.

“That fucker will get what’s coming soon enough,” Ryuji said quietly. “We’ve gotta go.” When he pushed Akechi in the middle of his chest, he did take a step back.

When he looked down and nodded, Akira let go of him. He turned his attention to the others, who were making their way toward the elevator. Well, all of them except Makoto.

The three of them passed her, and she primly held a hand out to Akechi. He seemed honestly surprised, but took hold of it anyway. When he looked up he frowned.

“What are you morons doing? We’re on the top deck of a ship that’s about to sink and/or fall apart. Just go out one of the windows!”

Akechi called his Persona once again. His eyes slid over his shoulder for a moment, but when the sword fell it only smashed through glass.

“Let’s go!” Akira called, and the group raced over to the new exit.

They all either perched on top of, or grabbed a tentacle of, Futaba’s Persona. She managed to get them out to the water, but then they quickly started losing altitude.

Akira braced himself for impact with the cold water, but when he landed there was grass under him. He wheezed when more than one person landed on top of him.

He heard Ryuji groan from somewhere nearby. A quick headcount told Akira everyone had made it out just fine. Morgana leaped forward and tucked himself against his leg. Akira guessed he would have enjoyed the water even less than the rest of them.

“Did we do it?” Ryuji asked, slightly muffled as he wiped a hand over his face.

“Uh, I think so,” Futaba said from the top of the pile. She held up something small and Akira realised it was some kind of pin. “I guess now we wait.”

There was a collective sigh from the group. Even though they were exhausted, Akira doubted any of them would be getting much sleep.


	30. Chapter 30

The waiting was the worst. Everyone tried to return to their normal lives, but Akira knew they had all been as glued to the news and the group chat as him over the last few days. Even if Shido didn’t try to make some kind of public announcement, Akechi and Makoto should hear about what was going on behind the scenes one way or another.

Ryuji sighed and finally dropped his pen, then folded his arms on the booth table and closed his eyes. This didn’t look like normal homework and study avoidance, but given the circumstances, Akira wasn’t really that surprised.

“Got first week blues?” Akira teased lightly.

With the school trip on the horizon, they should have taken care of all this a lot sooner. But as they were now finding out, they probably wouldn’t have been able to spend the rest of summer relaxing anyway.

“That’s supposed to stop after the first week?” Ryuji joked in return, though his tone was heavy with something else.

“What’s up?”

Ryuji tilted his head before answering. “When, _if_ , he confesses, isn’t it still going to cause us trouble? If you’re not on probation anymore you’ll be sent home, right?”

Akira had wondered what had Ryuji so down over the past few weeks. He guessed he hadn’t wanted to bring it up when there was so much going on with everyone else.

“Not necessarily,” Akira replied. Ryuji slowly raised his head. “This case is huge, the trial will probably take months if not years to sort through all the details. I can’t see myself getting off probation before the end of the year, and at that point it’d be disruptive for them to make me change schools again.”

“You think so?” Ryuji asked quietly. He sat up, hands shifting to grip the edge of the booth seat. “It’s still gonna suck when you do have to move, though.”

Akira let his foot rest against Ryuji’s under the table. “Yeah, but I guess that’s kind of inevitable. I mean, I’m willing to do long distance until I can come back on my own terms.”

And he did intend to come back, given he felt like he’d actually found people to connect to here. Even if it wasn’t under the best circumstances.

Ryuji smiled sadly. “I think we can find a way to make it work. It’s just going to suck.”

“Probably.” But they’d both known from the beginning that it was going to have to be like this. “Why don’t we just try to enjoy the time we do have instead of worrying about that, for now?”

Ryuji brought his hands onto the table and wrapped them around Akira’s. He nodded slowly, but then the look in his eye changed to something more mischievous. “Totally. So let’s not worry about studying and just…”

Akira found himself laughing before Ryuji even got a chance to finish. “Nice try. But no.”

Ryuji sighed and planted his face in his textbook. But his grip on Akira’s hands only tightened. He squeezed his hands in return as his amusement faded.

But his smile remained.

* * *

Akira hadn’t expected to ever find himself on Makoto’s doorstep, but apparently Shido had been taken into custody and was being questioned by her sister’s team. That meant it wouldn’t be long before he started talking about Akechi.

Morgana had insisted on coming along. He leaped into Akira’s lap the moment he’d sat down on one end of the couch. Makoto and Akechi returned with three mugs and a dish of water. Akira accepted the one Makoto offered him with a nod. After she’d put the dish on the coffee table, the two of them sat down.

“So, it’s all happening?” Akira asked before the silence could turn awkward.

Both of them nodded and looked at each other. Akechi rested his mug against his knee before answering.

“He started talking earlier this afternoon, and is seemingly covering things in chronological order throughout his life. It’s only a matter of time before he gets to the things related to me.” He frowned at the floor. “I wanted to check if there’s anything I should or shouldn’t say before heading over tonight.”

“Tomorrow,” Makoto corrected. “I’ll take you down in the morning.”

He looked ready to protest, but when she gave him a significant look he glanced away, face tinging pink. Akira thought it was probably better if he didn’t comment.

“Well, all I can think of is the obvious,” Akira began as he let Morgana jump onto the coffee table so he could lap at the water. “We’re the only ones that know about what really happened to Kamoshida, right? The official story is that he died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.”

Akechi nodded. “He had nothing to do with Shido’s machinations. Though completely erasing your friends’ involvement in my activities will mean I’ll have to lie and say I was working alone for some cases where I wasn’t. I suppose that means they won’t get any formal compensation for what I did to them…”

“I think they’ll just have to live with that,” Akira replied quietly. “It isn’t like they’re never going to see you again. If you still feel like you have something you need to do to make it up to them, you can do that when you get out.”

“And if you get sentenced to death, that might be sooner than you think,” Makoto added.

Akechi nodded slowly. “All right, but should we have some other story to explain how we all know each other? It might come up, especially if the relationship between myself and Makoto becomes obvious.”

Akira sat back slightly to consider his answer. “I’m not sure what your early interactions with Ryuji and Ann were like, but the first time we encountered each other at the TV station was also the first time anyone witnessed the four of us interacting. Would it make sense to say that was our first meeting?”

Akechi nodded slowly. “I was discreet in my initial interactions with them. I think we can say we all met by chance in that bathroom. Okumura’s involvement may be a little more difficult to explain, though.”

“Ryuji and I already met her at school before she was involved with you. And Sojiro still thinks all of us were buddy-buddy, so I’m sure it won’t be too difficult to explain away what came in between.”

“I can still see Futaba being a problem, though,” Akechi replied, shaking his head slightly. “I’ll have to confess to what I did to her mother. And I’ll probably have to explain why I was using my access to police systems to match her cryptocurrency wallet to her bank account. It all seems very suspicious, and I can’t just say I was keeping an eye on her because of Shido when he could refute it.”

“That is a pickle,” Akira muttered. “I wonder if she could delete the record of you doing that? Then we could say you coincidentally met her through me as well. Since she goes by Sojiro’s last name outside legal documents, you could say you didn’t even realise who she was until recently.”

Makoto nodded. “That would probably be the easiest way, if she can act that quickly.” Akira started typing a message to her as Makoto continued. “We knew each other for some time before all of this started, so that’ll be easy enough to explain. But we should probably say our relationship started earlier than it did to help explain why you were spending time with so many Shujin students.”

Akechi hummed his assent and Akira guessed they had already discussed that part earlier. He guessed Yusuke and even Misaki could be covered by what they’d already discussed, if it came down to it. And he felt they could rely on Akechi’s ability to lie about this.

When Morgana jumped back into his lap Akira ran a hand over his back. His ears flickered as he looked between them all. “Hey, you’re still going to help me after all this is settled, right?”

“Of course,” Akira replied lightly. “I have to entertain myself for the rest of the year somehow.”

Makoto leaned forward with a small smile and reached out to scratch Morgana behind the ears. “I will too.”

Akira glanced down at his phone when it buzzed. “Futaba says we just need to give her the date and time of your search and she’ll take care of it.”

Akechi pulled out his phone and started scrolling through something. “It was in the evening, but I’ll have to figure out the exact date,” he said quietly. “Tell her I said thank you for the assist.”

“Right.”

Futaba was quick to reply that she was only doing this to make sure Ryuji and the others didn’t get in trouble, but Akira didn’t think it was necessary to share that right then and there.

* * *

Goro’s hands shifted to straighten the tie of his school uniform before he pushed the door of the nearest central police station open. He held it for Makoto when she insistently followed him inside before making his way up to the front desk. The officer sitting there did a double take when she saw him and Goro smiled wryly.

He supposed everyone had probably been sent an email about keeping an eye out for the wanted criminal, but he hadn’t seen it himself since his work account had been suspended sometime yesterday.

Goro slowly placed his hands on the counter so she could see what he was doing with them. “My name is Akechi Goro. I’m here to turn myself in,” he explained pleasantly.

The officer called out a name and a man stuck his head out the door that led into the small office behind them. “Call the SIU, we have one of their suspects,” she said as though she couldn’t quite believe it herself. She moved around the desk cautiously before putting herself between him and the few other people in the waiting room.

Goro remained still. Oddly, it felt like he was the calmest person in the room.

Once the man had finished his call he came around the desk as well. “I’m going to search you, and then I’m going to place you under arrest,” he began the usual spiel.

Goro nodded and waited patiently for him to finish. “Niijima-san already confiscated my sidearm,” he explained as hands methodically patted up his sides and down his front. His phone was taken out of his pants pocket before the search continued.

“Sae is my sister,” Makoto explained softly as she held her bag open, letting the female officer take the weapon and bullets. He’d warned her not to pull it out herself, though she’d probably figured that out already.

“Shoes off,” the man said gruffly.

Goro stepped out of them, listening as they were examined as well. He was allowed to put them back on after a moment.

“Hands behind your back.” Once again he slowly did as asked. The cuffs clicked into place, and only then did it really hit him that there was no going back now.

The hand on his shoulder pressed against him until he turned around. He glanced at Makoto, who was ignoring the other officer’s mix of assurances and questions in favour of staring at him.

He remembered her advice about not pulling any punches while describing the circumstances that had led him to the point where he’d thought killing other people was a good idea. He let his fake smile fade as their eyes met.

She deserved more than that.

“We’re going to hold you here until the SIU representatives arrive,” the man explained. “Turn the corner past the desk and wait by the holding cell.”

Once he started moving, he didn’t look back. To his surprise he ended up being taken past the holding cell and straight into an interview room. As he was cuffed to the bar under the sturdy table, part of him wondered if Sae would dare speed on her way here.

Either his perception of time was out or the answer was yes, because all too soon she was storming into the room. She dropped her bag to the ground before sitting almost violently in the chair opposite him.

“Start the recording,” she snapped. Goro glanced at the mirror and wondered how many people were on the other side. “Prosecutor Niijima Sae interviewing Detective Akechi Goro, 2016 September 2nd, 7:53a.m.” She paused and squeezed her folded arms as he continued to stare at her blankly. “One of the witnesses to this interview is not a police officer or legal professional. Will you proceed with this if Niijima Makoto is listening?”

He automatically looked back at the mirror again, though he couldn’t see anything more than last time. He supposed he hadn’t specifically asked her not to listen in. And given where they were now, she had a right to know everything he was about to say.

“That’s fine.”

Sae nodded before leaning forward and clasping her hands together on her knee. “Then I presume you showed up here of your own volition for a reason.”

It seemed that was his cue. He sat up a little straighter and felt the usual emotional disconnect from the things that had happened in his childhood.

“Unable to deal with poverty while having a child hanging off her, my mother committed suicide when I was nine years old,” he began abruptly. Sae’s face remained stony, but she did already know that part. “I was put into the care of an institution where I was regularly abused by children in similar or worse circumstances. When I turned eleven I was told I should be grateful that soon I would be moving in with foster parents.”

He couldn’t help but hesitate a little. This was something he had never shared with anyone. But if he was going to be held accountable for everyone he’d ever killed or hurt, he couldn’t skip this. Not when he was already going to pretend the Kamoshida thing had never happened.

“The foster father was a paedophile and his wife preferred to turn a blind eye than rock the boat. I was repeatedly molested over a period of eighteen months. My lack of support system meant I was unable to bring this to anyone’s attention. I went back to the institution when I turned thirteen, though it was never explained to me why.”

Sae looked uneasy, but he knew it seemed like he was getting off track.

“When I discovered… my ability at fifteen, he was the first person I killed.”

“Was that before you met Shido?” Sae asked, her expression still intense.

“Shortly before,” Goro confirmed with a nod. “He was the only person I killed outside of Shido’s orders,” he lied easily.

Sae seemed to be willing to believe him on that point for now. He’d just have to make sure it stayed that way.

For everyone else’s sakes, if not his own.


	31. Chapter 31

It almost felt like they’d slipped into a different plane of reality again. It was too bizarre, going from constantly seeing Akechi’s face in interviews and TV appearances to seeing his unflattering mugshot on the news night after night as the gory details of his trial were reported in a seemingly endless stream.

Akira, Ryuji and Futaba were jammed together on the best booth seat in the house for watching the TV in Leblanc. Ann and Shiho sat opposite them, necks craning to look back at it every now and then. Akira was pretty sure Sojiro had been drying the same dish since the report had started up again.

They were all a little tense since Makoto had said his sentence would probably be handed down today.

Akira barely listened to the vapid speculation about something tangentially related to the case because he was too busy staring at the photo on screen. Akechi looked serious. Not quite angry, but maybe determined. There was something wild in his eyes, but it was subtle.

Akira remembered going through the procedure after getting arrested for his own Shido incident, and all he could recall was being furious at having to apologise and beg to have his jail time suspended while his parents tried to pay reparations in the background. Probably more for the sake of their own reputations than to keep him out of juvie, but at least they’d tried.

He guessed Akechi had known his photo would be seen by most of the country, and had tried to restrain himself without putting the mask back on. And even though it was no secret which school he went to, he’d removed his jacket and tie. Maybe it was better for him to disassociate from his old public persona as much as possible.

It was almost silly that all anyone could seemingly talk about was how he was related to Shido, as if genetics had played a bigger role in this than poverty and a lack of social support. Sae had been ruthless in chasing down and exposing every detail of his turbulent childhood, but it didn’t seem to be out of cruelty. Makoto had explained it might just save his life.

If his mental state was in question for reasons out of his control, he might not be considered beyond reform. And that was what would make the difference.

Akira turned his attention back to the TV properly when the reporter stuttered in her speech and sat up a little straighter. Ryuji’s hand slid into his. Futaba gripped his arm. Morgana perched on one of his shoulders, back legs resting on the back of the booth seat. Ann and Shiho twisted around fully.

Sojiro finally put his plate down and shot them a look of concern. “Now listen up, I know you all thought you knew him personally, but no matter what—” he began, but Futaba shushed him loudly.

Obviously Sojiro had missed the part where Akechi admitted his involvement in Futaba’s mother’s death. Akira doubted he’d be so calm otherwise.

The TV presenter started speaking again. “Breaking news from the court room. A sentence has been passed.”

The tension in the room ratcheted up, though Akira honestly wasn’t sure what the others were hoping to hear. Ann twirled the piece of her hair she’d been fiddling with into a tight coil, and Shiho reached back to rest a hand against her knee.

“Life in prison with mandatory counselling, and a lifetime prohibition on possessing any device capable of running an application?” She paused, confusion clear. They hadn’t been able to make that part public knowledge, but it seemed she had bigger concerns. “Doesn’t that mean he could apply for parole in only ten years?”

The camera cut to the man sitting at the other end of the desk, who pushed his glasses up his nose. “He was tried as an adult, but the fact he started making reparations to his victims’ families before he turned himself in would have lightened his sentence from capital punishment. Still, parole in that timeframe would be incredibly unlikely,” he added before launching into an explanation of the related statistics.

Futaba was the first to react, the tension leaving her body as she slumped against Akira’s arm. “Sheesh, I don’t know whether to be relieved or not.”

Akira wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Sometimes neither option feels right.”

“I dunno, maybe I was kind of looking forward to the daring rescue,” she muttered. “Still, doesn’t bad stuff happen to you in prison?”

Akira shrugged. Just being held until he’d been pressured into a fake confession hadn’t exactly been fun. “If he’s even allowed to interact with other prisoners, I give it about two weeks before he has the entire establishment under his thumb.”

Ryuji snorted. “Dude, don’t joke about that.”

Futaba shook her head. “Well, yeah. But I meant from the guards. And he’s not exactly going to be Mr Popular after all this…”

“Doesn’t he deserve to have a bit of shit flung his way?” Ann muttered as she rested her elbows on the table, a small frown on her face.

“ _Yes_ ,” Shiho said emphatically as she folded her arms. “This is still unbelievable. How do you even get to a point where you’re directly or indirectly responsible for hundreds of deaths?”

“Yeah but, twenty, thirty or more years of it?” Ryuji added uncertainly. “How different are we all going to be in five years let alone several decades?”

Both Ann and Shiho gave him a small smile. “You’re too soft, Ryuji!” Ann teased.

“The real reason Sakamoto-sempai got so many love letters in middle school,” Shiho added.

“Oh my god shut up,” Ryuji muttered as he put his face in his hands. This time all three of the girls and Morgana laughed at his expense. At least it helped to ease their nerves a little.

Akira patted Ryuji’s leg sympathetically as he looked back in the direction of the TV without really paying attention to what was on it. “Hey, do you think Makoto is all right?”

They all shifted uncomfortably as their minds went back to the issue at hand. “Should we call her?” Ann asked.

“She’s probably still in court, right?” Shiho replied quietly. “If this is a live broadcast…”

“She knows she can talk to us if she needs to,” Akira tried to assure them.

“Makoto really liked him, huh…” Morgana added as he dropped onto Akira’s leg.

They all glanced up when Sojiro came out from behind the counter, but he only put a lint roller down on the table in front of Morgana. “Since we don’t have any customers, I’m going to close up,” he announced. “Do you want to come home now, Futaba?”

She shook her head. “It’s still early.”

“We should head off, though,” Ann replied. “Shiho’s parents will be worried about her being out and about for so long. Thanks for the coffee.”

Sojiro nodded as he shifted to get out of their way. Akira waved them off before turning his attention back to Sojiro, who looked like he had something else to say.

“Your mother knows you’re here, right?”

“Y-yes Boss,” Ryuji stuttered as he sat up a little straighter.

Sojiro sighed, but he seemed to find it at least somewhat endearing. “Well, don’t forget to actually get some study in. It’ll be New Year’s before we know it.”

“That’s still over a month away,” Akira reminded.

Sojiro hummed as he turned back to the TV. “It’s kind of surprising how fast they handed down a sentence.”

“The phantom murders have been plaguing the SIU for years. I guess they want to prove they’re not useless,” Akira muttered.

“You’re probably not wrong there,” he replied before turning to the door. “Well anyway, I’ll leave you three to it.”

Once Sojiro had left, Futaba sighed and started stroking Morgana’s forehead. Gently, thankfully.

“This is all so ridiculous,” she muttered. “Like, there isn’t a right answer that’s going to satisfy everyone. How did they even make the decision to do this much?”

“Well, maybe if you make a time machine…” Akira began, not knowing how to address the latter part.

Futaba suddenly sat up straight. “Oh yeah! We just need to go back in time and kick Shido in the nuts until he can’t reproduce!”

Ryuji shrank back against the wall on his other side. Akira just made a sound of amusement.

“Not what I meant, but each to their own.”

Their little thought experiment seemed to have given Futaba enough to chew on to get her away from her need to overanalyse the case itself, which was probably for the better.

“What do you think made Shido the way he is?” Ryuji asked as he leaned forward onto the table. “You’re gonna have to go back to the dawn of time at this rate.”

“Is that a challenge?” Futaba demanded.

“What if it is?”

Akira shook his head slightly and tried to lean back as far as he could to avoid the crossfire. When he glanced down, Morgana rolled his eyes at him. They shared a private smile.

* * *

A train station bathroom probably wasn’t the most romantic place to say goodbye, but being this affectionate on the platform would definitely garner them some disapproving looks. There was a long line of stalls since the shinkansen stopped here regularly. So they’d taken the one down the very end since Akira doubted anyone would notice there were two sets of feet under the door.

Ryuji had let him push him up against the stall wall. Akira had been quick to press their mouths together, very much aware that he had to be back on the platform and looking presentable in less than fifteen minutes.

Ryuji’s fingers threaded into his hair as he attempted to pull them even closer, even though he was already kissing him full on, no holds barred. Akira ran his hands up Ryuji’s arms, appreciating the physical evidence of his strength while he still had the chance. Ryuji’s hands tightened in his hair and against his face as he pressed himself forward.

They both jumped when there was a scratch against the door, but Akira soon realised it was only Morgana. “All right you two, time to stop being gross. The train is going to leave in four minutes!”

Ryuji made a soft noise of complaint, but his hands slowly softened and then dropped away altogether. “Already?”

Akira leaned back slightly so he could take his glasses out again and put them back on. Ryuji reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, presumably arranging it back into its usual form of chaos.

“Hurry!” Morgana pressed, and Akira looked down at his phone. Now there was only two minutes.

He and Ryuji burst out of the stall and grabbed both Morgana and his suitcase. Ryuji ran the back of his hand over his mouth before reaching out to run his sleeve over Akira’s.

“Didn’t help at all,” Ryuji admitted sheepishly.

Akira smiled. “I’ll live.”

Before Morgana could complain again they raced out onto the platform. Akira managed to join the tail end of the line of people boarding just in time.

He jumped when something suddenly bumped against his arm, but he quickly realised it was only Makoto holding an envelope out.

He took it from her as Morgana tucked himself into his hand luggage. “Akira, Goro wanted me to give you that before you left,” she explained quickly.

“Thank you,” Akira said even as the train guard impatiently waved him on.

He hurried forward, storing his luggage and finding his seat as quickly as he could. When he looked out the window he was greeted by a crowd of people.

Ann and Futaba were both waving energetically with both hands, while Haru was a little more delicate about it. Ryuji got as close to the window as he dared without being told off by station staff. But Yusuke didn’t seem to have the same compunctions as he’d pressed himself against the window, bottom lip trembling.

Makoto caught up to them a moment later and was a little more reserved with her waving.

When the train started moving forward, they all glanced around. Ryuji jogged along the platform, not paying nearly enough attention to where he was going. But fortunately it was mostly empty now that the train was pulling out.

They managed to wave at each other one last time before Ryuji had to either slow down or have a nasty collision with a wall. The train sped up and suddenly his view of the platform, and his friends, was gone.

Well, all except one. Akira opened the bag so Morgana would go back inside it before anyone could notice him, or complain.

Akira felt his phone buzz and pulled it out of his pocket. He smiled when he saw the message was from Ryuji.

_Miss you already._

Akira bit his lip as he tried to think of a reply that was something more than just parroting the sentiment. But he guessed repeating things back didn’t matter if they were true.

_Me too. But this isn’t goodbye, just see you soon._

Akira smiled slowly as he read Ryuji’s reply. _I’ll hold you to that!_

He wouldn’t let him not.


End file.
